


Casey Lalonde

by Werepirechick



Series: Let's Play a Game [1]
Category: Homestuck, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Adoption, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Family Bonding, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I'm so sorry for this, Past Child Abuse, Universe Alteration, all these kids have been through one type of hell or another, and following the space arc for tmnt, everyone here needs therapy and blankets honestly, my own stupid au once again, please blame my tumblr and youtube, post game for homestuck, the meeting of turtles + the game kids isn't gonna go well i'm telling you now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 02:24:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 41,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7134794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werepirechick/pseuds/Werepirechick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Casey's aunt shows up after years of absence, and doesn't like the mess his house has dissolved into since his mom died one bit. Especially how his father treats him. One short encounter with the law later, and Casey and his sister are removed from New York to the Lalonde mansion.</p><p>With his cousins' standards to measure up to, their extremely weird friends who keep getting inside without him noticing, and the huge shift from his normal life; Casey has to figure out where he stands now that he can't fight the good fight anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Act 1

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for nothing and everything.  
> But it was inevitable that I would combine my two favored fandoms at some point, the song Grey Eminence by Casey Lalonde (I shit you not, they exist) on youtube just gave me the push for it. Go check out the song, it'll be the theme song for this whole fic.  
> Read if you dare, I've tried to make it accessible to both of my fandoms; so no one needs a ton of background knowledge on Homestuck to really get what's going on. It's mostly Casey's verse for it all.
> 
> I will drag everyone into this stupid AU if it's the last thing I do.
> 
> If you read to the end, congrats, there's a lot more where that came from. I've had the first and second chapter done for a while now, so the second will follow shortly tomorrow once I fix a bit of dialogue. Chapter three is on it's way. God, I'm barely half done. Why do I do this to myself.
> 
> So yeah, on with the shit show.

 

 

Casey Jones never in a million years thought he'd be happy to be back in his shitty apartment.

Nothing had changed, since technically he'd only left a few hours earlier. Bottles and cans still littered the hallway and kitchen counters, and unwashed laundry sat in a pile in the middle of it all. The television was on, the baseball game playing on mute. His dad was passed out in his recliner, and from the amount of beer cans on the table, he wasn't waking up any time soon.

Casey had left his incredibly cool space suit back with the turtles, because there was no way he'd have been able to keep it here. He didn't even have his normal gear anymore; that stuff had blown up with Fugitoid number 1#. Getting a new set of hockey equipment was going to be tricky with his tight cash; he was lucky his team was in the off season right now.

Casey tip toed quietly down the hallway, pausing only in front of the door covered in faded stickers. He pushed it open, and felt a knot inside his chest loosen completely for the first time in months. His little sister was sleeping soundly on her bed, her hair haloing her on the pillow.

He walked in, picking around the few toys that littered the floor, and knelt by her bedside. He'd had a ton of fun in space, kicking ass and making names for them all, but he'd missed his little sister the whole time.

He brushed his hand across her forehead, moving the loose hairs from her eyes and smiling fondly. She didn't stir at all as he pulled the blankets back up to her neck. Casey leaned back at took a good look at her; she was getting older now, no longer a little kid. Her ninth birthday had been earlier that year, and now she was already half way to being ten.

She looked a lot like their mom had.

Same pin straight hair, but black and messy like his and dad’s. Noel was probably going to get their mom's facial structure though; Casey could see her looking almost the same when she got old enough.

He missed his mom, he missed her even more when he looked around their home and remembered what it'd been like when she was alive. Noel small and snuffly in her arms, their dad smiling and looking like the proudest man in the world.

Casey was glad sometimes, that Noel couldn't remember a home any better than this one. He remembered it clearly, and missed it often. Especially when his dad came home drunk and angry. Small blessings made him leave Noel alone, and that's all Casey could ask for.

What he wanted for though, was for Noel to get better than this. Better than a drunk father who embezzled their money in liquor and a brother who might not even make it into college. If he even lived that long. Some of the adventures he'd been having with his friends had been closer than usual.

Casey shuddered; remembering how the world was just _gone_ after the black hole had appeared. He'd played it cool, putting effort into focusing only on the positives; like being in space and getting all new weapons. But he'd actually been on the edge, he'd just watched his whole planet die; and with it his remaining family.

Casey listened closely, to make sure Noel was still breathing. Her soft sighs of air came and went with the rising of her chest under her blankets.

Good enough for now, he needed to sleep like crazy. Casey rubbed his burning eyes and got up off the floor. He placed a quick kiss on Noel's forehead before walking back out of the room; closing the door with only a whisper.

Still no noise from the living room, which meant he was still good. Casey didn't bother stopping in the washroom to brush his teeth, he was too tired to. He kicked his high tops off once the laces were un-done, leaving them in his pile of shoes in the open closet. Next he pulled off his bandanna and tops, dropping them into a heap that was followed by his pants and socks.

Casey's bed smelt like unwashed sheets and musk, but it was home. He'd missed his messy room, filled with all the junk he'd collected over the years. A picture of his family, back before his mother had past, watched him from the bedside table. He couldn't make out the faces in the photo in the dark, but he knew it was of them all on Noel's second birthday; looking happy as anything.

Their mom had died a little over a year later.

Casey rolled over to face the wall, dragging the covers along. He was exhausted, no matter how hyper he'd been after the big fight earlier. Defeating an empire really took it out of a guy.

Casey closed his eyes and thanked whatever god was watching that tomorrow was Saturday.

 

 

 

Roxane Lalonde was a woman of business, and a very successful one at that.

Her prowess in multiple scientific fields was well known, and it had made her somewhat of a celebrity to the right people.

Some of those right people had invited her to speak at a lecture in New York, a meeting of great minds to discuss the recent revelation that aliens were in fact real and on earth. During the invasion of the great city months earlier, Roxane had been working around the clock with members of her close social group to figure out what to do.

They'd sent scouts in to assess the damage, and had been disappointed to discover there was little they could do. The affliction New York had been suffering wasn't something they'd ever come across on this earth; completely alien, for lack of better term. The few mutated people they'd captured in secret hadn't yielded any results, their medical expert unable to do anything for the mindless individuals.

They'd had to return them to New York, in case the situation resolved itself and returned to its original state; if the people weren't there when it had done just that, they might not have returned to normal. They had been lucky Roxane’s daughter had made that call.

The sudden restoration of New York relieved and befuddled even Roxane, who'd seen and done a number of unimaginable things herself. She was going in to check out if everything was truly back to normal, and to check on her extended family. Her cousin, Claire Lalonde, had married and resided in New York a number of years before her passing. Her two children and husband still lived there, and while Roxane hadn't talked with them since her cousin's funeral, she thought it was prudent to make sure they were recovering.

She and Claire had been close growing up, practically sisters with their nearby houses. Unfortunately, with Claire's untimely death, she'd been unable to bring herself to see the family Claire had created. Roxane intended to righten this now, starting the renewal of the family ties.

If she wasn't mistaken, Casey would be about her daughter's age now; little Noel still on the young side. It would be interesting to see if Casey remembered her after all these years.

Roxane had rented a car when she'd arrived at the airport, and she'd just finished dropping her bags off at her hotel. Her back seat now held an assortment of gifts, wrapped by the department store. She'd called her little Rosie for advice earlier, asking her to pretty please consult the powers that be.

Casey would receive new hockey equipment happily, and Noel would really appreciate some art supplies. Or Roxane hoped. She hadn't seen either of these kids since forever ago, and she was worried they wouldn't accept her back into their lives.

But experience as of late, has taught her not to let these things wait; if she didn't make the first move then they'd never get to know her again. She was going to trust her daughter's judgement on things, it rarely failed her.

The pack of coolers was for their father, Jackson Jones, and Roxane thought it might get the man to warm up to her being around again. Even if he didn't, it wasn't like she was going to be in town for long. The conference was only supposed to last three days, the more paranoid members of the group anxious about staying in what was essentially an entire city of people who'd been abducted by aliens. Who knew if they'd been probed and keened to murder them, is what they'd said.

Roxane thought she could take a civilian easily, probed or not; her martial arts skills hadn't faded in the slightest since her prime.

Roxane pulled her silver vehicle to a stop in front of a slightly run down looking apartment; Claire's last residence and hopefully the place where her kids still lived. She decided to leave her gifts in the car for now, in case the family had moved away.

Her heels clicked away on the steps as she climbed them, still recalling the exact floor her extended family lived on. Stepping over the occasional wrapper in the hallway, Roxane moved down the hall following the rising numbers.

Finally, the correct one being 25, Roxane stopped in front of a worn door that had scuffs all along the bottom. The brass door numbers were tacked with age, same as the door's knob. Roxane raised her elegantly painted fingers into a fist and rapped thrice.

 

 

 

Casey was awake, but barely.

His father was already gone for the day; work in construction was an all day job thank god, so it was just him and his sister.

Noel had made them both breakfast, the second round for her since she got up so much earlier than him. She always waited until at least noon before going to wake him up; aware that he was out very late almost every night and especially on weekends. Toast and eggs was a pretty good meal, considering a nine year old had made them. He didn't sniff at it of course, he couldn't cook for shit and Noel was on her way to being an iron chef or something.

He munched on his eggs drinking in everything she said. He'd waited forever to be able to hear her go on and on about whatever she wanted; he wasn't going to interrupt her now.

Unfortunately, whoever was at the door was going to do that for him.

He got up from his chair, scratching at his still shirtless torso, and headed for the front door. Too polite sounding to be the land lord, so he figured he didn't need to get dressed just yet. He opened the door and

there was a very attractive middle aged woman standing there, looking far too classy to be in his neighborhood.

“Uh,” He said intelligently.

“Casey?” She said, raising an eyebrow and smiling pleasantly.

“Uh, yeah, yeah that's me?” He hadn't meant to end that in a question. Whoop. He felt very exposed now, and starting to be afraid this was a new land lord or a tax collector. He tried to play it cool, leaning a little on the door frame. “Can I help you miss?”

“I'm not surprised you don't recognize me, we haven't seen each other since you were eleven,” The lady said, chuckling lightly.

Casey looked her up and down, taking in her shiny black heels and white dress that somehow looked like a lab coat and the magenta summer scarf around her neck. His mind clicked and his eyes widened. “Aunty Rox?!”

“Yes! Sorry to just drop in like this, but I was worried about you all after that invasion,” His aunt replied, smiling widely. “Do you mind me coming in? I haven't seen Noel in forever, and I'd love to catch up with you all.”

“What? Oh yeah, definitely, come on in!” Casey stood to the side as his aunt walked in, her black heels clacking across the scratched wood floors. He grabbed a plain black t-shirt of his laying on the back of couch and threw it on as he followed after; being half naked in front of his aunt wasn't acceptable at all, his mom would've smacked him upside the head for it.

“Noel?” He called as they walk towards the kitchen. “Someone's here to say hi!”

“Who is it?” She called back just as they rounded the corner. Aunt Roxy stopped and covered her mouth in a gasp, looking at Noel sitting at the table swinging her slippered feet. Noel blinked curiously at her aunt. “Hello, who are you? Are you daddy's new girlfriend? You’re very pretty.”

“Oh, she looks just like her mother,” His aunt said softly, looking nostalgic and sad. She shook it off as she answered Noel's inquiry. “No Noel, I’m not your father's girlfriend. I am however, _your_ aunt. You won't remember me, but I was very close with your mother and your family a few years ago when you were still small.”

“I'm still small though, so how small was I then?” Noel piped, putting her fork down. “I must've been really tiny then, since I can't even touch Casey's shoulder now!”

Aunt Roxy laughed, clapping her hands. “Yes, you were even smaller than now. In fact, I used to be able to hold you in one arm! You've gotten so much bigger since then.”

“Mhm! I grew a whole inch this year!” Noel turned and grinned at Casey. “Tell her Casey! I grew!”

“You totally grew an inch Ellie, we marked it up and everything on you door,” Casey replied enthusiastically. He moved around his aunt and returned to the three chairs at the table, and gestured at the third. “Take and seat aunty Rox, you can have toast and coffee.”

“Ooh, I’ll take you up on that coffee, thanks,” His aunt said, sliding into the last chair. He poured her a cup and passed it over, thankful the pot was fresh and still hot. He poured himself another glass and sat back in his chair. “So brings you into town? We haven't seen you in years.”

“Like I said, I’m here for a conference meeting between folks like me in the scientific field. It's a discussion about all that fuss about aliens last year,” Roxane sipped her coffee delicately, leaving not a single smudge of black lipstick on the rim.

“Oh, that stuff. That was a wild ride alright...” Casey took a gulp of his coffee.

“I don't remember any of it at all!” Noel said, finishing the last of her eggs. “One second I was at school, next I was somewhere in central park! And a whole bunch of months went by without me knowing! It was super weird.”

“It was even weirder for us on the outside of the city,” Aunt Rox chuckled. “We couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on, and I was so worried about your family. I’m so glad you’re all okay now.”

“Ditto that thought,” Casey agreed. “I like my city un-mutated thanks.”

Roxane smiled wryly. “Don't we all? By the way, where's your father? I was hoping to talk with him too.”

“Daddy's at work,” Noel supplied, starting to stack the dirty dishes onto her plate. “He's not gonna be home till late tonight.”

“Our old man works all day every day when he's got a contract,” Casey explained, starting to wake up properly now that he had his coffee. “He's not gonna be back for a long while, but you could catch him tomorrow if you wanted.”

“That would be good, yes,” Roxane said, smiling at him.

“Casey, I have a play date with Angela upstairs in a couple of minutes, can I go now?” Noel asked, coming back from the sink. She looked at her aunt and smiled. “S'not that I don't wanna talk aunty, but my friend only gets to play on weekends. Could we talk maybe tomorrow?”

Roxane nodded, her short blonde hair bobbing with her. “I'll be around plenty, so we can talk more then. Have fun with your friend!”

“Hey, you’re supposed to ask you big bro for permission,” Casey said teasingly.

“You were gonna say yes anyways!”

“So?! Still supposed to ask!”

Noel stuck out her tongue and trotted off to the door. Roxane watched as she left her purple slippers neatly where her shoes had been, and opened the door to leave.

“Be back before five!” Casey yelled after her.

“I know!” Noel yelled back, closing the door as she did.

Roxane chuckled. “Now that's something I remember Claire doing with her family as well.”

“Mom was a real spit fire alright,” Casey agreed. His easy smile died on his lips when his aunt turned back to him with a serious expression. He sat up a little straighter, on guard. “What?”

“Casey, if you don't mind, I’d like to discuss the amount of alcoholic bottles and cans that are lying around this apartment,” Roxane gestured to the tall pile by the sink alone, bigger than the dishes pile. “And that's not to mention the disrepair I’ve seen in just this part of the house; what's the rest of it like?”

“Hey!” Casey said defensively. “I fix it up best I can, okay?”

“I'm not implying that you don't. I just want to ask about why you have to in the first place,” Roxane folded her hands together on top of the table. “Casey, this apartment doesn't look anything like the last time I was here. What happened?”

Casey could feel her eyeing the bruises on his exposed arms. He crossed them, feeling uncharacteristically self-conscious. “It's not what you think. These aren't from him.”

“Then where did they come from?” Roxane said.

Casey shrugged, thinking of the triceraton that had nailed him with a charge; he was lucky she hadn't seen the ones on his back and legs. “Not him, someone else. It's a crappy neighborhood is all, it's normal.”

“A house with this much waste in it? Bruises that size?” Roxane’s eyes stared directly at Casey, and he wouldn’t meet them. “That's not normal. Shouldn't have to be.”

“What do you know? You haven't been here for years now,” Casey said bitterly, his rediscovered connection with his aunt souring in his mouth.

Roxane’s face softened, sadness creeping in her eyes. “No, I suppose I don't know much. But I do know, from the looks of things, that this isn't the house my sister lived in any longer.”

Casey looked at the place he called home, feeling less so the more time he spent in it the last few hours. He almost missed the space cruiser, with its clean everything and endless food. “Yeah, I know it's not what mom left, but it's all we got okay? We're doing our best.”

“You kids maybe, but I don't think your father is.”

Casey bit his lip. She had him there, and he agreed.

His aunt sighed heavily. “I know I’ve been gone for a long time, and I can't ever express how sorry I am about that. I was too caught up in my own misery to see that I needed to take care of the people close to me. But I’m here now, and I want to help.”

Casey scoffed, help she said. “How so? How are you going to help us exactly?”

His aunt rubbed a gold ring on her finger thoughtfully. “I have some ideas, but they'll take some calls. Before I do anything though, I want to know you’re on board. You’re almost an adult now, you can think for yourself. But you have Noel, and I want something better than this for her; and I'm thinking you do too.”

Casey thought of all the things he couldn't give his little sister, and how dangerous his neighborhood was. He thrived here, built up strength from the grit and metal thrown at him, but Noel needed more than this. Deserved it too.

He'd thought sometimes how easy it would be to take her underground with him and never bring her back here again; but then she couldn't live anything close to a normal life, even if the family he had down there was safer than the one up here. It was an unrealistic dream, even for him.

“You’re some kind of really rich scientist right?” Casey asked, staring intently at his empty mug. “You’re loaded and have a mansion and junk.”

“I am definitely loaded, more money than what I know what to do with,” Roxane confirmed.

“And you’d give Noel everything she wanted?”

“I give both of you that, and more. Casey, please,” His aunt put her right hand on his, light and tentative. “Let me do this for you both.”

Casey sucked in a deep breath, thinking of how angry his dad might be if he found out. “Keep it quiet, alright? And make it quick. I don't want my old man to get even a hint of what's happening.”

“He's not gonna know what hit him,” Roxane smiled, a glint in her eyes.

 

 

 

Roxane didn't attend a single meeting that day, sending a gift basket and her apologies to her fellow scientists. She had bigger fish to fry.

Some calls to her team of lawyers, and then one to social services, and the ball was rolling. She expected that a case would be built by the next day, and the investigation the next. All she had to do was flash her last name, and the company behind it, and the attention of the office rats were all hers.

Roxane Lalonde had not gotten to where she was because she pretty and kind, she'd gotten hear by tooth and nail; combined with her intellect of how to use her looks to fool people and her very real genius, there had yet to be an obstacle she couldn't overcome.

The one that lay before her was not going to be as fun as knocking prejudiced men down at the knees however; it looked to be a foul experience for everyone involved.

She'd given the pack of coolers to her bell boy as a tip soon as she'd gotten back to her hotel, but the itch for a good drink remained. She'd planned for this, having called ahead to have her room emptied of all alcoholic beverages before she'd even set foot in New York. Roxane was a strong woman, but after years of drowning her sorrows, even she was a slave to temptation.

But she'd seen what her influence had brought upon her daughter; she had no desire to continue being that version of herself, miscommunicating constantly with her child and feeling numbed to almost all her feelings.

If Rose had found the strength to change herself, then Roxane could too.

Roxane popped a wad of bubble-gum as she scrolled through news reports about the alien invasion; the presents for her extended family sitting forlornly on the couch of the room. She hadn't thought, with their new plan ongoing, that giving them that sort of thing would be good right now. Instead, she'd focus on what she'd come here to do originally. Just because she wouldn't be attending the conference didn't mean she couldn't look into the extra-terrestrial shenanigans that had happened here. It was her job for her family, and an important one at that. If the Kraang ever came back, they'd need to be ready. They weren't going to lose this earth right after getting it back.

Her cell phone rang, and she clicked her blue tooth ear piece without stopping her one handed typing. “Hello, Roxane Lalonde speaking.”

_“Ms. Lalonde? It's Frances.”_

“Frances! Tell me you got news.”

_“I do indeed ma'am, it's about the investigation and case for your family's situation. The case has been accepted and they're sending an evaluator tomorrow morning at ten sharp.”_

“That's wonderful!” Roxane exclaimed, feeling elated. “Tell me, what's with the speedy response?”

_“The office place knows well of your financial girth, ma'am. They don't want you to bring bad press on them for not being quick about their work.”_

“Ah yes, it does pay to be paid well,” Roxane laughed. “And how much of a case do you have so far?”

_“More than enough for the investigation. Currently, we have possibly mild to severe depression on Jackson's part, tied with the passing of his wife; a chance to file for mental instability on his part. Then, we have Casey Jones' spotty school record and history of in school and off grounds fighting; his tendency to spend entire nights away from home. A sign of parental neglect leading to him acting out. And the amount of money being spent on alcohol and not on the up keep and schooling of his two children is enormous. He might have given you a run for your money, ma'am. This is just the beginning as well. If what you said about the house and the boy's bruising is true... well this man will lose the case for sure.”_

“Good. Keep digging, I want as much damning evidence as possible,” Roxane replied, a sly smile gracing her features. “However, try not to focus on Casey's schooling; he's a good kid, and sometimes school doesn't work out as well for some people.”

_“Yes ma'am, I’ll have that removed for now.”_

“Thank you Frances, that's all for tonight. Have nice evening, and thanks for the over time.”

_“You have a nice night too, Ms. Lalonde.”_

After aunt Rox left his house, Casey had spent the rest of the afternoon impatiently waiting for it to be evening.

He couldn't leave until Noel was home and fed, she'd be able to get herself to sleep. But he needed to get down to the lair, talk this out with his friends.

Thank god for Donnie's invention of the T-Phone, otherwise he might have gone crazy with all the waiting.

He'd called Raph, since he was the closest relationship he had with the brothers. From the gruff way Raph had answered, he bet the turtle had been waiting on him to call; not wanting to be the guy who caved first.

Casey explained things best he could, about his aunt and what might happen now that she was here. Raph listened the whole way through before telling him to get his ass underground soon as he could, they were having a team meeting around eight to talk about this; plus whatever the fresh hell they were going to do now that they were back.

They were hoping for a little down time, seeing as they just finished a galaxy wide adventure plus saved the world from destruction _again;_ and not to mention defeated the shredder in combat finally.

After months of being stuck in close quarters with the brothers and April, it was starting to be really strange to be in his shitty house. Being unable to hear one or more of them fighting or sparring or just nearby talking was getting to him.

He told Raph so. “It's fucking weird man; suddenly I don't run into one of you guys every time I turn a corner. I almost miss your collective mutant asses.”

_“I didn't know you spent so much time looking at turtle butt Jones.”_

“Fuck you, you know what I mean,” Casey said, kicking a bunch of empty beer cans out of the hall and into the kitchen. “It's bizarre. Thought I was never gonna get rid of you guys, and now...”

As Casey struggled to describe it, Raph huffed a sigh into the phone. _“I know what you mean. It's so weird to be back in the lair. I woke up this morning and thought I was still asleep. Leo actually had a damn heart attack at breakfast when Sensei walked in. Heck, we're all having a hard time accepting Sensei's alive again.”_

“It's pretty rad though, to have him back,” Casey said.

_“Yeah, it really is. That space fuckery turned out to be good for something.”_

“Can't say I’m not gonna miss it though, waking up and seeing a new planet every day.”

Raph sighed deep and heavy. _“Yeah, us too. It was pretty great to walk around and not have people flip out. I might've hated space, but that sorta almost made it worth it.”_

Casey mentally slapped himself, bad thing to bring up. His friends, saviors of the entire earth and all that, couldn't even take a walk down the street to enjoy it. If there was one good thing about space, and possibly the best thing, it was that they'd been free to go where ever they wanted.

He made a quick topic change, which Raph probably noticed but didn't comment on. They spent at least another hour shooting shit over the phone before Raph got called away for family katas. Casey didn't hold him up, that sort of thing was important to them.

Casey looked around the mess his house was once he'd hung up. He could clean it up, but... that might ruin his chances of the suits (hopefully) coming to investigate it sometime soon. He kicked a shirt that probably wasn't his down the hall into the pile there, he dad wasn't gonna notice shit even if he didn't clean up. He'd just leave it.

That left him with... pretty much nothing, but homework to catch up on. Trigonometry waits for no man, not even a space hero.

Casey was grateful that his little sister came home early from her playdate; he'd apparently gotten even worse at math while he was in space; despite two geniuses being in his presence the entire time. He was going to have to ask April to tutor him on this part of the course _again_ , since he'd forgotten everything about this arc. Maybe the whole course actually, he couldn't remember the previous lessons at all either.

Noel helped him with dinner, instant mashed potatoes, and green beans from the farmers market, with some leftover chicken. He asked her to tell him about how school was going lately, and she'd rambled long tangents about her classmates and the things she'd done with them. By the time the food was rinsed off the plates, he felt reconnected with her again. Even if she didn't know it, he'd been gone for a long time. It was nicer than he thought it would ever be to hear her talk about mundane things.

He lingered long enough to read a couple stories off her second hand shelf; he could be a little late to the meeting. When he'd finished, he tucked her in and told her he'd be back by the time she woke up. She kissed him on the cheek, and told him he better be. He grinned, and returned the kiss, promising to be.

Casey was glad he had extra sports equipment besides his favorites. A slightly bent aluminum bat and a pair of fingerless kick boxing gloves was all he took; his other stuff better for full-fledged night combat and not for a quick run into the underground.

Casey whistled as he made his journey into the turtle's tunnel territory. His memory of the way would probably never fade, even if he never came back again his whole life.

Everyone was already assembled in the TV area, chatting together. Even Splinter was there, kneeling beside Mikey in his bean bag chair. Leo sat close to Splinter as well, talking animatedly. Raph sat on the couch, an arm slung on it, while April and Donnie sat close on the other end. Casey took his unsaid invitation and dropped in between the space of April and Raph's gap.

“Sup dudes,” He greeted casually.

“Holy shit you took forever,” Raph groused right off the bat.

“Language, my son,” Splinter reprimanded.

“Sorry, Sensei.”

“I'm not that late, chill. I just had to spend some time with my little sis is all,” He said, shrugging.

“I suppose that excuses you this time, Jones,” Donnie said, his unimpressed face leaving.

“So what's this about a relative of yours being in town, Casey?” Leo asked, starting the conversation’s main topic right off.

“She's not technically my aunt, but she and my mom were so close she might as well be. She lives a ways away and I haven't seen her since I was a kid,” Casey explained. “She said she came to check on my family, since she heard about the invasion by the Kraang.”

“You said she was trying to get you two out of your house, right?” Raph asked. He crossed his large green arms and frowned the way he always did when he was suspicious. “Care to elaborate?”

“My aunt Roxane doesn't like how it is at my place, and she wants to do something about it. I don't know how it's gonna go, but I said yes, okay? I’m not so stupid I can't tell it's a shitty living situation, and I want Noel out of there,” Casey swallowed. He'd never talked about his home life with these guys; he'd wanted to keep it separate. But here he was, talking about it anyways. “She's a crazy smart scientist, made a ton of money over the years making discoveries an' such. She can give Noel what she needs, and aunt Roxane is our family; she'll take care of us.”

“...what if she takes you guys away?” Mikey asked in a quiet voice for once. From the way everyone else was looking at him, they were thinking the same question.

Casey clenched his hands around his bat’s handle. “Then I guess that's how it'll roll.”

 

Sunday was the only day of the week Jackson Jones would be home, so Casey wasn't surprised to see him in the kitchen the next morning when he came back from an impromptu sleepover at the turtle's.

They hadn't meant to fall asleep like that, but none of them had wanted to leave. No one had been able to sleep well the night before, the abrupt change throwing them all off. There were casual touches all night through the movie marathon, checking to see where the others were. Casey kept as close as they did, which was something like a pile on the mattresses that had been dragged out.

 _Separation anxiety_ , Donnie had mumbled at some point as he moved closer to the group during the second movie. _It's common in soldiers and members of deep space missions_ , he added as bumped into Casey's shoulder. _Making sure your group is still okay helps keep you calm._

Casey supposed they counted as both of those groups; they'd fought a whole empire while in space after all. If that wasn't war, he didn't want to know what was.

Leo's T-phone alarm went off at six thirty AM, waking everyone up thinking it was the ship's alarms again. Leo slept only until that time every night before doing a patrol of the ship or lair. Because he'd fallen asleep along with everyone else, he hadn't been secluded in his room when it went off.

Casey, though tired out, was kind of glad it had. Otherwise he would have slept all morning and broken his promise to Noel. He'd left Donnie, still mostly asleep and lacking filter for social grace, bitching Leo out for having the alarm in the first place; the others egging him on. They were lucky Splinter was asleep still, since he might have smacked them all with his cane if he'd heard half the stuff that had come out of Donnie's mouth.

Donnie, being Donnie, had picked up some long and complicated alien cuss words to add to his already bilingual library. It was very entertaining to watch Donnie swear in at four languages at once, two unpronounceable by human vocal cords.

Casey's good mood evaporated when he got home and found his dad's shoes on the mat inside.

He left his own shoes at the door too, hoping his quiet socked steps wouldn't disturb his dad. He walked carefully down the hall, dreading passing the kitchen. His dad sat at the table, sipping black coffee and reading the newspaper.

Casey started to walk by, when his dad turned his head towards him.

“Hello, son,” His dad said to him.

Casey swallowed. “Hey dad.”

“What's with you being up this early? And out no less?” His dad said, setting his cup down on the table with a clunk. He hadn't had any alcohol yet, but the hang over from last night was clear in how he held himself and the bloodshot quality of his eyes.

“I, uh, just wanted to get a walk this morning. Thought it be a good way to start the day.”

“Is that so?” His dad said, in a tone that clearly stated he didn't believe him. “And you take walks now. In the morning.”

“Yep,” Casey said, feeling sweat bead on his bandanna covered forehead. They stared at each other for a moment more, before his dad turned back to his paper, flicking it back into position. Casey breathed a silently sigh of relief and continued to his bedroom.

Soon as Noel was up, maybe he could convince her to go out with him or something, avoid being home for the day. He looked at the clock of his shit dollar store digital; 7:50 am, a little while yet until Noel woke up. He could catch a few more zzz's before then.

Casey flopped onto his bed, not bothering to get under the sheets or take off his clothes; he'd do that later. Maybe shower too if he really felt like it.

The sound of glass breaking jolted him back awake.

The clock as he reads it says 10:06 am. Noel's awake then, and probably broke something making herself breakfast. Casey rubbed his eyes and started to haul himself from bed.

The sound of his father's voice loud and angry made him move faster.

Casey had the door open and a foot out the thresh hold when his father yelled again. Casey hurried into the room and found his sister pressing herself near the sink, his father red in the face and directing his shouting at the two new people. A black woman with neat corn-rows in her hair, and a white man with bright red hair. They're were holding clipboards and had name tags on their chests.

Oh. Casey knew what this was, then.

“You have _no right_ to come in here, and accuse me of-”

“Mister Jones, we have a warrant,” The woman said, cutting him off. She showed him her ID and the warrant attached to her clipboard. “We are here to evaluate your living space and the health of your children. No one is accusing you; we're just following up on a tip according to procedure. Don't make this any harder than it needs to be.”

That's when Casey's dad noticed him in the room, bloodshot eyes locking onto him. Casey backed up a step when his dad took one towards him. He was angry, so angry; just like Casey thought he’d be.

“ _You_ ,” He said through gritted teeth, stepping closer. “ _Yo_ _u_ told them, you called them!”

“I do anything, dad, I swear!” Casey stepped back another step, hands raised. “I wouldn't do that, you know I wouldn't.”

“WHO ELSE WOULD HAVE?!” His dad thundered. He's right in Casey's face now, still ever so slightly taller than Casey even with his growth spurt in space.

“ _Mister. Jones._ ” The woman said again. She's stepped closer to them, a stern look on her face. “I will ask that you step away from your son, this is not helping your case-”

“You can't tell me what to do, woman! Not in my house, my home!” Jackson Jones turned his fury back around at her. “This is my family, and you can't tell me how to treat my kids!”

“As a matter of fact,” The shorter ginger haired man said, entering the conversation for the first time. “She _can_ tell you how to treat you children, seeing as we both represent the government and social services.”

Jackson spat on the ground, showing what he thought of that. “Get out of my house right now; I don't want you people on my property.”

“We have a warrant, we are not leaving until we have a discussion and we examine what we came to see,” The woman replied firmly.

“Just let them talk, okay dad? No harm in that, it's just a conversation,” Casey said, trying to diffuse the conversation. Casey's dad turned on him like a cornered rat and smacked him across the face with the back of his hand. Casey, unprepared even with his experience in fighting, hit the wall with his temple and saw stars.

Noel's scream and the shouting of the two social workers hit his ears like sirens. Casey rubbed his burning cheek, then choked as a shoe connected with his chest cavity; all of his air leaving in a whoosh. His dad only gets him twice more before the two other adults pulled his father away. Casey struggled to breathe, coughing on nothing. Noel got down on the floor with him at some point and was holding his shoulder tightly, but he only watched what was happening to his father.

Another person had joined the fray, a police officer from the looks of it. His dad had cuffs around his wrists as the woman held him against the wall. Guess the social workers brought muscle to protect them.

Casey felt like he was watching TV or something, no way this was happening right now.

The woman from the social workers duo came knelt beside him, asking questions if he was okay. Casey nodded vaguely, trying to push himself back up so he could see his dad.

Jackson Jones was already being taken out the door, angrier as he'd been before. Casey couldn't believe it, that any of that had just happened.

His dad had put the nails into his own coffin; no way would he get away with something like that in front of the suits.

It was over.

It took Roxane Lalonde all of three days to get custody of Casey and Noel.

She was their only living relative left, and had more than the required funds to take care of them. The judge and jury had only taken one afternoon to remove custody from Jackson, who was facing charges for child abuse.

Roxane had been there, when the gavel had banged against the wood one last time. So was Casey, right next to her in flat black jeans and a rumpled dress shirt. He didn't stop staring at his father the whole trial, who in turn didn't acknowledge his son once.

When they took Jackson from the room, she caught him shooting them one last look. It was a mix between sorrow and apathy, something that mixed into resignation. Maybe Jackson was sorry on some level about what he'd become and for the things he'd done to Casey, but his apologies didn't undo those things.

Casey had slumped against his chair when his father disappeared from sight, looking exhausted. Roxane reached over and rubbed a hand on his shoulder. Casey nodded and wiped at his eyes. No tears there, just tired black bags.

Roxane took him out of the court room and back to the hotel where Noel waited.

This was going to be a huge transition for them all; she'd just taken apart their whole world and tossed the pieces to the wind. Maybe they'd hate her; maybe they'd fight her on leaving New York.

They could do that all they wanted; she had patience and money to spare. She didn't care if neither of them ever wanted anything more than allowance from her; she just wanted them to be somewhere safe.

“What?!” Raph bellowed when Casey told him how the trial went down. Casey had come here right after it, not evening changing from his stupid white dress shirt. He just needed space, and his friends. “It's over? Already?! How did it happen so fast?”

“Aunt Rox has a lot of money, which means a lot of power. She wanted it to happen, so it happened,” Casey said lackluster. “Now she's me an' Noel's guardian.”

“That's crazy,” Donatello said, joining the group assembling after being called by Raph's yelling. “The justice system never moves that fast!”

“It does when one of the people who called it in are the CEO of a major multinational company,” Casey replied. Mutters of disbelief made Casey run his fingers through his hair, tugging at the roots. “Look, aunt Rox is gonna take care of us now, my old man's jail, and we're probably moving; alright!? That's what happened.”

“Casey, dude...” Mikey said, looking heartbroken. “So you _are_ moving?”

Casey nodded, his hands pulling at the end of shirt. “Yeah. Once the old house is cleared out and the paper work is finished, she's gonna whisk us off to her fucking mansion. It's great, we're out, Noel's gonna get what she needs, my dad's never gonna see us again if we have anything to say about it, b-but I just-,” Casey's hands moved back to hair and tugged at it on both sides. “- _we're moving,_ I have to _leave_ _you guys_ , and I-I just don't want to, okay?! I don't wanna go!”

He's crying, he's crying and it's gross. He's supposed to look cool in front of his friends, and he's crying in front of them over getting to move to a _mansion_. It’s humiliating, and he's never going to live it down.

Raph's strong arms wrapping around him made him choke on his breath, and he grabbed back with equal strength. When Mikey's weight knocked into both of them, they almost toppled over. But they're steadied by Donnie on the other side and Leo coming up last to be on Mikey's side.

April's arms wrapped around him from behind, she'd been over and waiting with the rest of them for news. Casey knocked his forehead against Raph's stupid pointy shell edge and got gross tears all over it. He felt dumb for being so upset about getting what he's thought about since he learned about social services. But it was overwhelming like nothing else had ever been.

Casey and the people surrounding him have fought more wars than most people will in their entire military career; they've been through situations that should have terrified him way more than this huge shift in his life has.

But charging a rampaging dinosaur alien with a hockey stick was a lot easier than saying goodbye to everything he's ever known.

He hoped, as Mikey finally unbalanced them all and they crumpled together, that it'd be worth it.

“So, is this goodbye?” April asked him on the last night he had in New York; one last sleepover for the whole gang. He'd gotten permission to leave the hotel for the night, to say goodbye to his mysterious friends, so long as he was back before three in the afternoon next day.

“Of course not red, like I’ll stay away long,” Casey said, brushing her concern off. “You all need me way too much for me to duck out for a long vacation; even if it's first class,” A flurry of snacks got tossed at his head in response, dusting him in salt and cheese flakes.

“Get over yourself, Jones!” Raph yelled at him.

Casey got sniped in the ear by a sling shot Donnie had made from chop-sticks and rubber bands, the genius turtle trying to get in one last night of banter and play fighting. Casey grabbed his paper bowl of Cheetos and charged at Donnie, managing to grab him by the shell and smashing it onto his face.

“Gross, Casey!” Donnie complained, spitting bits of fake cheese from his mouth. “I don't even _like_ Cheetos!”

“You don't know what you’re talking about, Cheetos are boss!” Mikey shouted, hyper from the amount of high concentrate pop he'd drunk earlier.

“Cheetos aren't even made with real cheese, Mikey,” Leo interjected, nibbling on his own bowl of sour cream chips. “And for your information, chips are superior.”

 _“Lies,”_ Mikey replied, doing his best Gollum voice to imitate the movie playing on screen. _“You tells liiiies.”_

“You’re all incredibly immature,” April said, rolling her eyes. “But I agree with Leo, chips are better than Cheetos.”

“I don't care _what_ they are, so long as they go in my mouth and taste good,” Raph said around his mouthful of plain chips and Cheetos both.

“I just realized something,” Donnie said from his position smushed against the sofa by Casey's back. “This is an incredibly stupid conversation. Why are we debating chips vs Cheetos? Do we actually even care?”

“It's all fun and games Don,” Casey said, elbowing the pinned turtle's stomach. “Lighten up, bro.”

“I cannot physically lighten my density Casey, we've talked about this.”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Casey groaned as he let his head drop against the back of the couch. “Your such a nerd, take off the lab coat for at least one movie night; ‘specially since this one is for _me_ personally.”

Donnie shifted so he could breathe easier, but didn't dislodge Casey. He patted Casey with one green hand. “Y'know? I think we might actually miss your crude ass around here.”

“Ha! Knew you'd come around,” Casey said, not feeling much victory really. The sounds of metal on metal clashing on the TV filled the air, the conversation dying off. Casey stared at the ceiling, wondering when the next time would be when he got to see it. “... I'm gonna miss you guys. So fucking much.”

Donnie sighed deeply and, without actually looking, resumed patting Casey's shoulder/chest area. “The feeling's mutual, Jones. The feeling is mutual.”

“I'm not technically a Jones anymore, did you know?” Casey said.

“Really?” April asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Yeah. I mean, my dad sorta turned out to be shit and mom's side of the family is the only one still going, and aunt Rox's is my guardian now, so I’m sort of... an honorary Lalonde?”

“Casey Lalonde,” Raph said, testing out the name. He shook his head, red band tails following the gesture. “Nah, not really you, is it?”

Casey huffed a laugh. “Yeah, I guess it's really not.”

“Give it time, Casey,” April advised, sliding closer to Casey and Don's weird sitting/laying position. “Maybe you'll grow into it?”

Casey scoffed. “Yeah right, me a Lalonde. I’m pretty sure all the Lalondes still alive are geniuses; I don't really fit that bill. And before you say anything,” He said, cutting off people's refutes. “I mean geniuses as in prodigies in their school years and then major powers when they get older. Apparently, my two cousins Roxy and Rose have finished high school already two years ahead of me; and we're the same age. They're both crazy talented. Rose is already writing her second novel, a sequel to her hit one last year, and Roxy made a lot of money independently contracting for programming skills. And that's not even mentioning my aunt! They're all geniuses, just like Don here. Lalondes have gotta be crazy smart to fit in, and like I said, I don't fit that bill.” Casey paused, and then continued. “Noel might though; she's got art down to a T for her age and then some. She's already getting better than most of the shit you see in stores. I’m kinda hoping she grows up to be a big time artist.”

“What about you Casey, what're you gonna do?” Mikey asked.

Casey lifted his head up and looked around at everyone, who were focusing on him and not the movie of course. He sighed and let his head drop back again. “Who knows, man, who knows.”

 

 

 

The next morning was hard, and felt like he was pulling pieces of himself off.

He got goodbyes of varying lengths from each of the turtles. Mikey all but smothered him in his hugs, making him promise to come visit soon. Leo's hug was less suffocating, since he was more standoffish than his brothers; Leo asked him to take of himself and his sister, and to come back safe. Raph grabbed him in a headlock and mussed his hair until Casey broke free and started grappling right back. Their interaction was a lot of swearing and challenges, until Raph felt like he'd goaded Casey enough he'd come back at least to fight him. Splinter came out to give Casey a goodbye too, carefully minding his claws as he hugged Casey. Casey thought should get around to telling him that he's over his rat fear for the most part; at least when it came to Sensei.

Donnie was the last one, holding a single gift covered in what used to be wax paper wrapped around a bouquet. Casey held his hands open expectantly, and tore it open when he got it. Inside was a T-phone and charging cord, but a sleeker version than the ones the four brothers have.

“It's, uh, made with better parts now. Mixed with some of the tech from my space suit,” Donnie explained pointing at the phone. “I made it so it holds battery power for hours and can reach pretty much anywhere on earth in terms of signal; not to mention I made the screen unscratchable and unbreakable. In theory. I didn't actually have time to test it out this week and I’m really hoping you don't mind since it was a bit of a rush job and-”

“Donnie?” Casey grinned, cutting his rambling friend off. “It's great, thanks a lot, really.”

Donnie smiled tiredly, more bags than usual around his eyes. “Good. Take care of yourself, okay Casey? We won't be there to back you up until you come home.”

Casey nodded, storing the phone inside of his hoodie pocket. He gave Donnie a good hug, dragging the taller boy down. Donnie patted him on the back as Casey returned the favor to his shell.

He waved goodbye to the turtles as he and April left the lair. And if his eyes were a little wet, she didn't comment.

 

 

 

“I'm gonna miss you a crazy amount Casey,” April said as they stopped in front of the hotel. She'd held his hand all the way back, and now they weren't eager to let go. “It won't be the same without you around.”

“No worries, I’m not gonna be gone forever,” Casey held up his hand in a pledge. “Scouts honor.”

“Pfft, were you ever even a scout?”

“No, but my word is just as good,” Casey grinned.

April laughed and pulled him into a hug. “Don't ever change, Casey.”

“Don't plan on it,” Casey laughed, hugging her back.

April left him there, running off to catch her bus coming up. Casey watched until he couldn't see her anymore before heading inside. Noel and their aunt were waiting for him to arrive, it was past three, but Casey doubted his aunt would be mad.

He was right, aunt Rox told him he might've been a little late, but there was no foul. Their ride was due in ten anyways, so they had better skedaddle downstairs. Casey picked up his and Noel's suit cases that they'd been living out of the last week, and carried them to the doors.

The car ride the Air Port was smooth by New York standards, hardly taking even forty five minutes. And they didn't even bother with the normal procedures of air travel, the sleek limousine driving straight onto the tar mac.

His aunt's private plane was waiting for them, already filled up and ready to fly. Roxane hurried them onto the plane, wanting to be off into the air already. Noel claimed a huge plush chair by the window, and Casey sat next to her. Aunt Rox flopped into her own chair across the cabin from them, loosening her scarf and kicking off her heels. Casey followed her example and ditched his high tops.

The plane took off only a scant few minutes later, the lights asking they buckle their seats just before. As the plane drifted higher and higher into the sky, Casey felt somehow sick as he watched New York be covered by cloud lines.

He'd spent his whole life there, built his world and self in it. New York was his home; the lair deep underneath it was his home. His friends were the best things that ever happened to him, even with all the danger that came with their lifestyle.

Casey pulled out the T-phone Donnie had given him and booted it up. Inside of his contacts was already all of his friends' numbers. Donnie had left it off for him, but already there were tons of text messages from the four plus April.

Casey flipped through Mikey's fifty some snap chats and Raph's concerned if curt texts asking if the flight was going okay. Casey turned the phone back off when he remembered you weren't supposed to use them mid-flight for some reason. He didn't recall that part of the instructions; he'd only flown once when he was really small.

Casey pulled out his original phone, the one with all of his music on it still, and plugged the ear buds in. Noel already had her sketch book out and her Walkman too; an old Queen CD spinning circles inside the little widow. She bobbed her head as she sketched something that looked like a cloud dragon.

Casey breathed out a sigh, and leaned back into his very comfortable chair. They'd reach the next Air Port in just two hours, enough time for him to try and prepare himself for moving into aunt Roxane’s mansion.

And meeting his genius cousins.

Casey flicked the volume on his song louder, trying to drown his stress in heavy metal bass.

 

 


	2. Act 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day and night in the mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter, as promised. Chapter three should be around in a couple of days.  
> If people are reading this at all, thanks for subscribing/sticking around for my nonsense!

 

 

They touched down in Vermont after six in the evening; the landing jostled Casey from his sleep.

He pulled his silent ear buds out of his ears and rubbed his eyes. Noel was already packed up and ready to get off the plane, she was almost bouncing in her seat she was so excited.

Aunt Roxane hustled them off the plane, saying if they got home quick enough they could catch Rose before she went out for the night. Casey hauled his suit case and Noel's off the plane, grunting as they ran into the hand rails of the stairs.

There was another car waiting for them, but it wasn't a limousine this time. It was something close to a jeep, but altered to be modern enough for the city life. Roxane took the keys from a man waiting by the car and told him to have Casey and Noel's things delivered soon as possible.

Casey threw the suitcases into the trunk, and then climbed into the back with his sister. Aunt Roxane started the car, which purred instead of rumbled, and took off down the tar mac. Casey put a hand across Noel's chest to steady her, the speed their aunt was driving at had to be illegal for this zone.

“Aren't we going a little fast?” Noel asked, not sounding scared at all. Mostly just curious of the unusual speed.

Aunt Rox laughed as she turned the corner with a swerve. “If I can drive this fast while black out drunk and not get a single ticket, then I can get us home in one piece!”

Noel giggled as they tore down the highway, leading out of the small town and into the country. Casey felt his stomach flop around as Roxane took dizzying turns, and whooped in surprise. Sure they were driving completely insane speeds, but Casey had done faster before and come out of it fine. If his aunt said she could do it, she probably could.

He cackled with Noel and aunt Roxane as the car thundered down the highway. They'd be fine, probably, and he'd be damned if he wasn't having the most fun he'd had since space.

The ride slowed a bit once they got onto unpaved roads, the sun disappearing steadily under the horizon. Aunt Roxane entertained them with tales of what her childhood had been like, mostly full of her getting into trouble from being a little too curious about how something worked. Science waits for no human, and even when she'd been arrested those couple of times, it'd been worth it in the long run. Her destruction of an entire building had helped lead to her revolutionary cloning technology, and given her the necessary fame to get funding.

Casey was asking her about the possibility of him getting a clone to be his stand in at school, when they finally turned a bend and onto the property of the Lalonde mansion. He rolled down his window to take a good look at it as Roxane pulled them to a stop in front of it.

It was massive, maybe as large as his whole apartment complex had been. The walls were white, roof pitch black, and a water fall flowed underneath the whole of it and over the edge of the cliff it sat on. It was almost more impressive than Fugitoid's ship had been.

“Come along kiddos, Rose should be just about to leave; you can say hi before she does,” His aunt encouraged, picking up their suit cases and hers from the trunk. “Be a dear and close the trunk Casey, I’ve got the bags. Noel, can you get the door?”

“Uh, you sure you can handle 'em?” Casey asked, unsure about her carrying all three.

“Of course! I’m not so old I can't carry a couple bags!” Roxane exclaimed as she carted them off. Casey watched her practically skip away and shrugged, she obviously had it handled.

He slammed the trunk closed and jogged after his two family members.

 

 

 

Rose Lalonde, part time writer and part time clairvoyant, was finishing reapplying her black lipstick.

She and her dear companions were preparing for what most would call a night on the town. Rose, however, preferred her brother's name for it; a potential riot and definite disaster in the making.

Her visions provided no truly negative out comes to going out, but she neglected to tell Dave there was a high chance he'd need a new pair of pants, as well as John. But where would the fun be in telling them every little detail? Better to make a betting pool with her other friends on who lost their said pants first, and why.

Her bet was on Jade making a poorly timed shenanigan with space. Jade had admitted this was a fair bet, but placed hers on the boys doing it to themselves via parkour. Rose hoped she wouldn't have to do any sort of parkour that evening, her heels wouldn't hold up against that.

She pressed the back of her earring on, and stood up from her vanity, her flowing, knee length dress adding flourish. A perfect shade of lavender to bring out her eyes and to match her silver earrings. She grabbed her purse and coat before turning off the lights of her room, leaving the door open in case a cat decided to sleep on her bed.

Her heels clicked along on the marble stairs as she descended into the front hall, lavender dress almost floating around her. She came to a stop beside the enormous wizard statue that still took up majority of the area; she and her mother hadn't bothered to get rid of it when they were renovating, not when Roxy had been so taken with it. Since Roxy stayed over some nights, they'd left it where it had stood for years before and would probably stand until the house fell down around it.

Though it wasn't liable to do that either, not with the expansions and structural enhancements her mother and Roxy had implemented. With such a large group of friends coming and going, it had been sensible to add onto to the original house. It was at least twice as large as what Rose had grown up in, and that wasn't even counting in the labs beneath the ground.

The only reason the whole of it was so empty currently, was because of her arriving cousins from New York. Rose was not surprised by her mother calling in the middle of the day to tell her that they had new siblings coming home; a quick look at her Sight had shown this was the only fortuitous path. For them and her cousins. Up till today was the deadline for preparing the house for company outside of their strange circle. It wouldn't do for Casey and Noel to stumble upon any of the odder devices and apparatuses they usually had around the home. Or the strange individuals who used them. It took pushing and nagging, but Rose had the whole of the mansion cleared for ordinary human use; nothing.. too unusual in sight. What the two of them made of the gigantic wizard in the entry way was anyone's guess, but that was the least strange thing about her home.

Though how long her friends would leave the Jones' to settle in, well Rose didn't expect that to be very lengthy at all.

Rose counted off the seconds left until her mother barged in through the door, tapping her perfectly manicured nails against one another.

The door opened and Roxane's loud, “Rosie! We're here!!” exploded in the former quiet. Right on time.

Rose smiled and went over to meet her new family. A little girl, barely a pre-adolescent was gaping at the statue beside her, short black hair kept back by a head band and two missing bottom teeth visible. Her mother bustled by with three heavy looking suitcases and into the living room, the little girl who Rose assumed was Noel following her. Last to enter the way was a teenage boy near her age; a bandanna covering his forehead and paint splatters on every article of his clothing. Casey, then.

Rose glided over to him and extended her hand. “Hello, am I correct to presume you are my new housemate, Casey Jones?”

Casey blinked at her, and then grabbed her hand in his glove covered one with a smile. “Yep, that's me. Noel's the kid with your mom.”

“Yes, I saw them go by. Was your journey smooth? It must have been with such a short flight,” Rose said, taking her hand back and folding the two together.

“I actually slept through the whole thing, so you'd wanna ask Noel,” Casey said, laughing as he tugged at the edge of his hoodie. He looked up and down at her dress and make up. “You, um, goin' out tonight?”

“I am in fact, my ride should be here in just a moment,” Rose held up her purse. “Would you mind terribly?”

“What? Oh! Oh, no, sure,” Casey took her purse and held it as she pulled her light grey coat around her shoulders. It was almost to her knees, stopping mid-thigh, giving her lots of warmth. She left it open, seeing as she wouldn't be somewhere cold for a little bit yet. She took her purse back from Casey. “Thank you for holding it.”

“No problem,” Casey nodded. Rose watched him fidgeting, clearly uncomfortable. Ah well, she supposed she'd release him from the awkwardness of meeting extended family in a moment; first though, she'd set a couple rules since he'd be living with her from now until the foreseeable (ha) future.

“Casey, I’d just like you to know, I have an atrium that I’d prefer you did not enter.”

“A what?” Casey asked, confused.

“A large glass room for plants typically, but I use it for yoga and meditation. It's near my room, and on the left wing of the house. I need that space to be uninterrupted by anything, and I’d like it if you wouldn't ever go inside,” Rose tilted her head and smiled without teeth. “I have moments where I will need absolute peace and tranquility, and I don't want you to witness me in such a moment. So, if you would, please stay out no matter what.”

Casey raised an eyebrow, and then nodded. “Yeah, I’ll keep out. I’ll tell Noel too, thanks for giving us a heads up; we wouldn't want to mess with your meditation mojo. I have some friends who need the same thing.”

“Thank you,” Rose said, checking that off her mental list. “I'd also like to tell you I have a number of friends likely to show up at random times; night or day. So if you meet someone you don't know, they're probably one of mine; even if they show up inside the house without knocking.”

“S'cool, I’ll keep out of the way,” Casey said. “Your friends have a spare key or something?”

“Or something,” Rose replied, smiling in a manner she was told was her _'Mysterious Shenanigans'_ face.

Loud beeping and shouts interrupted them, making Casey jump and reach for something not there on his back. Rose walked around him and opened the door again, letting the exuberant shouting into the house. Outside was a topless jeep filled with her three friends.

“ROSE!!” Jade yelled at her, hair already wildly tangled despite recent grooming. “Get in the car, we're gonna paint the town red!”

John slammed his hand on the horn a couple more times for emphasis, grinning widely. Dave was in the back with Jade and smirking, which counted as a smile wide as John's for him. He leaned out of the car and tipped his head at her. “C'mon Lalonde, I know your eager to get to know your new house buddy, but we got reservations and shit. Gotta be on time to get kicked out and such. Save needling him for later.”

“Pft, we won't get kicked out Dave,” John laughed.

“No, we most definitely will be getting kicked out,” Rose said as she made her way to the passenger seat. “It is the most likely sequence of events.”

“Did you See that in your mind’s eye or something?” Jade asked, flopping back into her seat; lime green dress puffing as she did.

“I did not, but tradition dictates we must get ourselves metaphorically kicked to the curb within no more than thirty minutes of being seated,” Rose smiled coyly at John, who was grimacing a little. “We wouldn't want to break our streak now would we?”

“Hell no,” Dave agreed in the back, shades glinting in the fading light. “Nothing less than getting onto the evening news is gonna cut it. So gun it already, John.”

“It was nice meeting you, Casey; I shall see you tomorrow!” Rose called out as John pulled them out of the drive way. Rose turned back around in her seat and faced the road ahead. With John driving, there shouldn't be any too terrible accidents on the road tonight. But with Jade and Dave both in the back seat, egging him on, not even she could predict it perfectly.

She allowed her companion's loud conversation to wash over her, drawing her away from thoughts of her new housemates.

 

 

 

Casey scratched his head, wondering how that jeep had gotten up here without them noticing.

Did it tail them all the way here and they just miss it in the review mirror? They had been going pretty fast; maybe they'd always been one corner ahead of it.

“Casey! Did Rosie leave already?” Aunt Roxane yelled from inside.

“Yeah, you just missed her!” He hollered back. He walked back inside and kicked off his filthy sneakers, not wanting to track dirt into the pristine house. He could feel the eyes of the enormous wizard statue watching his every movement; that was going to take some getting used to. The whole house would, with its sprawling width and spotless floors. Casey hadn't felt so out of place since his last picture day, feeling his missing teeth and black eye consciously as the camera flash went off.

“Casey, Casey, Casey!” Noel said excitedly as she bounded back into the front hall. She ran full tilt until she could jump into Casey's arms, and he caught her with a small _'oof!'_. She was getting heavy. “Do you see how big this place is?? I think it's bigger than my school was!”

“It's huge alright,” Casey agreed, shifting his grip so he could walk them back towards their aunt. “Your room'll be pretty big if I’m guessing right, maybe mine too!”

“You can both pick out rooms right away if you want,” Roxane said from the kitchen, where she was pouring a couple glasses of water. “Here, hydrate yourselves before we head upstairs. We're gonna need to move quickly like if we wanna beat the moving van! They should be here in just a little now.”

“Ooh ooh! Let's go now!” Noel said excitedly, wiggling until Casey set her down. She grabbed a glass and chugged the water quick as she could, dropping it back on the counter when she was done. “We can go look now, right?”

Roxane was laughing so hard she almost couldn't reply. “Yes, we head on upstairs and find you some rooms. The whole right wing of the house is empty, only storage rooms and guest beds. You get to pick a guest room to keep for yourselves!”

Noel jumped up and down, so excited she could barely contain herself. Casey felt himself getting caught up as well, a whole new room to customize exactly how he wanted; a blank canvas to paint over. Sweet.

Roxane took Noel's hand as she led her from the room, heading for the grand staircase in the middle of the hall. Casey drank a couple quick gulps of his water before setting it back down, then went to go catch up.

“So, uh, aunt Rox; what's the rules for our rooms? Like, what can we put on the walls?” He asked as he took the stairs two at a time.

“Anything you want, you can do it! So long as it doesn't involve fire, toxic substances, or falls under illegality. Oh, and keep your posters PG in case that's what you’re asking Casey dear,” Roxane said, smiling knowingly at him.

Casey's cheeks colored. “S'not like that, I just like to paint with spray paint; was wonderin' if I could do some stuff on my walls.”

“Oh! If that's the case, just be sure to air out the room correctly; don't go getting that stuff in your lungs!” Roxane giggled as she pulled Noel to the left of the upper hallway. “I've inhaled some nasty chemicals in the lab before, and it's not good for you in the least! One time a mixture of them made me black out for a whole afternoon, and when I woke up again I had half a thesis on why _Jurassic Park_ was a great idea and we should totes try it, and a formula for the best smoothie I ever tasted written on the wall in sharpie. Ha, ha, college sure was a wild ride!”

The hall she led them down was lined on one side with doors interspaced by about ten feet, each door unmarked and blank white. Roxane opened the first one. “They're all a little different, so take a look around before you make a choice!”

The first room was pretty large, large enough to be a master bedroom if Casey wasn't wrong. It had normal bedroom stuff, but everything was expensive looking; and this was supposed to be just a guest room!

Noel poked her head in and looked around before backing out again and heading off down the hall. She was in the second room before Casey and Roxane had even moved from the first. Roxane chuckled quietly when they came into the next one, Noel hopping up and down on the four poster bed.

“I want this one!!” She exclaimed happily, hopping up and down again. “It has a princess style bed!”

“Don't forget to look at the other two before you decide Noel,” Roxane reminded her. “But if you do pick this one, we can get you a veil to go over the bed just like a real princess bed!”

Noel's excited shriek told everything she thought about that. She hopped off the bed and raced out the door, opening and slamming the remaining doors almost faster than Casey could blink. Noel ran back to them and started hopping in place again. “Okay I’m done and I want this one so I can I pretty please have a princess veil _pleeease_ -”

“You can _definitely_ have a princess veil! In fact, let’s go look on the internet for one right now!” Roxane took Noel's hand and they set off for the other side of the house, where Roxane's tablet would be. She threw a smile over her shoulder as they marched away. “Pick any of the rooms you want Casey, you can come and ask for painting supplies when you have!”

“Kay, thanks!” Casey said, waving to Noel as they left. He shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket, feeling the comforting weight of the T-phone, and went to go pick his room. The room after Noel's had huge windows close to the ceiling, letting in tons of light. The bed wasn't as grand as hers either, but looked fluffier with the down comforter. The walls were a pale cream and the rug was a light grey, not bad, but not really his style either. He closed the door and headed for the next.

The last bedroom had a smaller bed than the others, just a twin size, and it was shoved up against the far corner of the room out of the way. The carpet was a darker grey than the last, and the walls were icy white. The windows were large, but were also doors leading out onto the small balcony. Casey stepped further into the room, taking a closer look. There was a dresser larger than his one back in NYC, and a desk with a lamp on the end; a black swivel chair already pushed against it.

The closet that the room had was huge, large as the bathroom Casey'd had back in the city. The doors to it doubled as full length mirrors. Casey stopped in front of it to fix the hair that had escaped his bandana, taking it off and pushing his hair back into place. He pulled it back on and turned around to survey the room again.

He could make this work, add some graffiti and toss his dirty laundry around a bit and it could feel like home. Or not, he thought as he pulled out his T-phone. He didn't think this huge mansion would ever feel like home, too clean and classy for him. He grew up in a neighborhood made of crime rings and rundown buildings; he felt like the guy from _Monte Cristo_ ; pretending to be someone he wasn't.

He turned back on the phone, letting it blip repeatedly as it registered all the new texts and snap chats. It'd only been a few hours, but Mikey had surpassed one hundred snap chats and he had at least one text from everyone. He took a couple pictures of the room and sent them to all his friends, tagging it _'what do you think of the new digs?'_

Mikey's response was near instantaneous, a green and orange blur that was probably his face was sent with _'Looks great!!!!_ : D _'_ across it. Raph sent one right after that, a picture of his hand doing a backwards peace sign at him; _'took you long enough asshole'_.

Casey sent a quick middle finger to Raph before he put away his phone again. He should go find his aunt and ask about painting options, the walls were just calling out for some of his artwork. Speaking of, she was calling his name. He walked back out and towards the open area of the front hall. Aunt Roxane was talking with the moving men, and waving him down.

“You pick a room yet?” She asked, voice raised to carry across the air.

“Yeah, the last one down the hall!” He said back, heading down the stairs. “Our stuff's here now, right?”

“Yup! These fine fellows are gonna bring it up to your room, you can unpack on your own,” Roxane signed a form on a clip board handed to her. The man took it back, flashing impressive arms as he did, and nodded briskly. Two more men came inside, each pushing a lift with two or three boxes of their things.

“Casey's go in the last one down the hall, Noel's goes in the second,” Roxane instructed. The men nodded and grunted, pushing the heavy looking lift towards the stairs.

Casey moved to the side to get out of their way, feeling a little awkward they were doing all the hard work. He rolled up his sleeves and walked towards the open door. “I'm gonna help, it's my sh-I'm mean stuff anyways.”

“I'll help too!” Noel said, trotting after her brother.

“Guess we're all helping, then!” Roxane said cheerfully, following her charges outside.

It only took a couple trips to get everything inside, Casey and Noel didn't have much stuff all together; most of the stuff that had been in their house had been formerly their mom's or their dads. When Roxane had brought them back to their old house one last time, they'd thrown out almost everything that didn't belong to the two kids. Only some of their mother's things survived the cleaning, packed away and taken with them. Aunt Roxane said that she'd have them put in her storage area of the basement, to preserve Claire Jones' existence.

When all the boxes were in the right rooms, Roxane tipped the movers and sent them on their way. She told them she was making dinner, and that it'd be ready in another hour. Until then, they could make their rooms up how they pleased.

“Oh and Casey, I’ve ordered a package of spray paints that should arrive tomorrow morning,” Roxane said as he started back for his room. “The package will come with other neat things, like smocks and sheets to keep the stuff off the carpet. Lemme know if you need anything else, kay?”

“Kay, thanks again aunt Rox,” Casey said, leaving the room. He scooped Noel up from where she waited by the stairs, carrying her up the way to their hallway. He dropped her in front of her room, telling her to actually put away her things and not just play with her toys. She stuck her tongue out and said she knew that, and that it was Casey who always got distracted. He noogied her for the attitude until she squirmed free and shut the door on him.

He spent the next hour pulling his badly packed items out of their boxes. He'd barely folded anything, or even sorted it, so the clothes were all wrinkled and mixed up. Not much unusual about that, he always kept them like that. He stuffed all the pants and shirt he had into the bottom two drawers of the dresser and filled the top two with socks, underwear, and his two hockey masks. There was lots of room left over, the dresser was really big compared to the old one, but he had a feeling aunt Rox was going to drag him and Noel into shopping for new clothes soon; he'd seen her eyeing his few boxes of clothing and the state of what clothes he did have.

His lifestyle was rough, and it was going to wear and tear on his clothes whether he liked it or not. Or his lifestyle _had_ been rough. Not much crime to fight in the depths of the woods. Maybe a rabid wolf or something, but he was actually pretty sure they were extinct.

He texted Donnie _'are wolves extinct in america'_ before he hung up his three hoodies and single winter jacket in the closet. There was like thirty other hangers left over, and his four coats looked sad all alone. He shut the closet doors after he stuck his bat and tossed his five pairs of shoes inside.

Donnie texted him back as he was piling his small collection of books on the desk; _'No, wolves are not extinct in America, Jones. They're just very rare and don't live commonly in your area; they're further into the mountain ranges.’_

_'how do you know where i am i didnt tell any of you guys yet'_

_'Your phone has a tracking chip and global positioning device in it.'_

_'kinda stalkerish don'_

_'Bite me. It'll save your dumbass if you ever get it lost somewhere up there.'_

_'aw you care'_

_'Shut up. You actually saying it makes it sound dumb. I only do this because you’re prone to running head first into danger.'_

_'you mean running head first into awesome B)'_

_'How did you even live this long.'_

_'im just that good'_

Casey snarked back and forth with Donnie as he finished dumping the rest of his junk into the room. His number of note books filled with doodles and bits of writing get a spot in the drawers of the desk, and he places the new hockey equipment his aunt gave him in the corner where he can see it. The last amount of old DVD's and shitty knick knacks get left on top of the dresser. He collapsed on top of his new bed, T-phone cradled in his hands as he looked around his new room.

Not home, just filled with pieces of it. He snapped a few pictures for snap chat again and sent them off; _'finished unpacking now im bored af'_.

No one answered except Donnie, and he replied with a picture of his lab counter; piled with bubbling beakers and glowing mutagen samples. _'I'd prefer some down time right now to this.'_ , he was still working on the retro mutagen for Karai, even if they haven't seen her in months now. Casey could admire Don's work ethic, not to mention single minded determination, even if the guy could get on his nerves.

 _'I'll talk with you later, it's time for evening patrols.'_ Donnie texted him one last time. Casey told him to have a good run, and to say hi for him. Donnie didn't reply again, so he guessed that Leo's got them moving out already.

Just as well, his aunt was calling them down for dinner. He tucked the phone back inside his hoodie and headed down.

Aunt Roxy made a mean pot of spaghetti as it turned out.

Garlic bread and cooked broccoli to go with it, and dinner was a success. Casey tucked into it, hungry from the trip and unpacking. Noel and he both had seconds.

Once it was over, their aunt asked him to fill the dish washer with the used plates and utensils while she got Noel done with curtain and veil shopping. She promised that they could shop for him later if he wanted, or maybe tomorrow. He opted for the next day, feeling a little too overwhelmed to do much else other than retreat into his head for a while.

He finished putting all the dishes into the washer, and started it after adding a pack of soap to it. The house was silent as he made his way out of the kitchen, nothing moving. In the solitude of the forest surrounding it, Casey is reminded of how the first days in the farm house felt; the sudden lack of a city's ambient noise jarred him in the most random moments and made it hard to sleep.

And now he was used to hearing a slight hum twenty-four/seven. Hopefully since he lived in the farm house for so long and slept in a lot of weird places in space, he'd have an easier time settling in here. His footsteps echoed as he walked through the living room across from the kitchen. Large couches with tasteful pillows surrounded a low coffee table, the whole color scheme leaning on the darker side. He kept walking until he got to a wall of windows that led out onto the deck.

Casey opened the doors and stepped into the cool evening air. The fresh mountain air filled his lungs and the quiet noises of nature filtered into his ears. It was too dark to see far now, he could only see as far as the indoor lights reached. He could take a walk, but living near a cliff made that ill advisable as Donnie would say. He might wander right off the edge if he wasn't careful. No rocket skates to save him now if he did.

One of the worst things about leaving New York was leaving his awesome gear behind. He wouldn't be able to keep it hidden from aunt Roxane any more than he would have from his dad. It was going to sit in a closet in Donnie's lab and gather dust while he did the same out here.

He sighed heavily, what the hell was he supposed to do around here? The nearest town was a good ride away and even then it was too small to have anything good in it. He scuffed at the grass with his sock clade feet; maybe his aunt had a personal gym here? She seemed to be in good shape for a middle age woman, strong enough still to carry three heavy suit cases without breaking a sweat.

Exercise might take some of the edge off his restlessness, so he'd ask her soon as he saw her again. He turned around and walked back inside, shutting the sliding door behind him. He trekked back up the stairs, trying to ignore the feeling the giant ass wizard statue's eyes were following his progression. He caught sight of a bronze vacuum on a pedestal next the stairs he hadn't noticed before and raised an eyebrow; his aunt sure had weird taste in decorating.

He didn't hear anything coming from behind Noel's door, so he didn't bother to stop in; she was probably with their aunt still. Casey was glad their aunt wanted to spend so much time with Noel, his little sister hadn't had a steady adult figure in her life other than parents of her friends. Noel had been sad to leave her friends, especially the ones she'd known all her life. Casey had exchanged mailing addresses with the parents on his aunt’s suggestion; aunt Roxane had promised to fund the letter/package exchange between the kids, taking the pricey weight off the parents' shoulders.

Casey might be a little slow to get things sometimes, but he could tell guilt when he saw it. His aunt probably felt bad for dropping out of their lives when they really needed her, and was trying to buy her way back into their lives. Casey hadn't tried to resist it; he could see that she really did feel bad and wanted the best for them. Noel seemed happy to take it anyways, smiling the widest he'd seen in a while, so he wasn't going to complain much.

He opened the door to his new room, silent as the rest of the house, and entered. His shit digital clock blinked at him from its new home on the bedside table, it told him it was on the later side now, the time when he would usually be out kicking butt with the turtles and April.

He sat down on his bed again and pushed himself back until he was leaning on the wall. He pulled his knees up so he could put his arms on top, and used them as a prop up to hold his phone. No new texts, but Mikey had sent a number of photos out of context.

Raph and Leo covered in something black and gross looking in an alleyway, both the picture of disgusted and done-with-life. Donnie obviously gushing about something to April as they sat on the couch together. Sensei reprimanding Mikey in the background while Donnie snuck a selfie with his brother's phone. Raph photo bombing Mikey and Donnie's selfie by shoving himself into the frame. Leo and April joining in the next one, all five of them squished into the picture and beaming at the camera lens.

Casey saved them all to the phone's memory, labeling the folder _'green team and co'_. Casey closed the screen down and set the phone on the bed beside him. He didn't feel like sending anything back, even if he felt completely awake and raring to go. He twitched his feet against the comforter on the bed, filling the air briefly with rustling fabric.

He yawned, and let his head drop onto his knees. He was bored and he was homesick, keyed up and feeling like he'd left something very important back in New York. He sorta did, his whole team and adoptive family was all the way back on the coast, and here he was in the middle of nowhere.

This is going to be good for Noel, he reminded himself. She needed a good place to live and someone to look after her. That didn't change the fact that he'd left pretty much everything of value back in their old home.

He muttered to himself _“It'll be better here, just gotta get used to it”_ under his breath.

The silence of the house and the unfamiliar room surrounding him still felt wrong, though.

Rose's bare feet touched down on the gravel outside her home after midnight, prickling from little sharp rocks.

She waved goodbye as Jade drove off again, John was passed out in the back with a pantless but awake Dave; through shenanigans and a bit of bribery of a store clerk, John had gotten another pair of pants after he'd lost his first pair. Dave, sadly, was condemned to feeling chilly down under; his bright red boxers on display for their whole friend group. He saluted her lazily as they drove off into the tear in space Jade created, barely more conscious than John. Jade was the only reason they got to see each other so often, able to pop them where ever she pleased.

Rose chuckled to herself as she went back into her house; they'd managed to beat their old record; getting tossed out of the restaurant within the first ten minutes. John, despite his protestations originally of them being kicked out, he'd been the one to cause it this time. One too many knee-jerk-reaction pranks on the staff and then a platter of food went flying, which knocked over the candles of the table behind them, which set said table on fire; the spilled alcoholic drinks on the table helping it spread onto the carpet.

Really, an achievement even for them. The only person to have a quicker time for destruction of property was Dirk, but that involved hair trigger reflexes and swords. Dirk hadn’t been exposed to normal society until very recently, which gave him some room for error; John had no such excuse for his poor social behavior.

Rose brushed the dirt off her feet as she shut the front door. She'd lost her shoes around the same time Dave and John lost their pants; an unfortunate experience with wet cement, a dare, and disgruntled construction workers. Only Jade had managed to keep all of her clothes on, even if she'd put a long rip in the side of her dress. Honestly, they couldn't even go to dinner and dancing without incident.

No doubt the internet would have videos playing everywhere of pantless boys running from angry construction workers, and only escaping via flying away, come the next day. More work for Roxy, since she'd taken it upon herself to curb any media attention to their powers.

Perhaps a movie night would be a better option for their next get together; they might even be able to coax Dirk off the island for it. An Alpha and Beta sleep over would be nice, and it would give her a chance to introduce her third cousins Casey and Noel to the group properly.

Rose ascended the stairway to the second floor, aiming to remove her dress and makeup and slip into comfortable pajamas. Shenanigans did take it out of you, especially when they involved poor choices and super powers. She walked along the quiet hall leading to her side of the mansion, only sound coming from her dress against her knees. Except for... the sound of something knocking against a wall just around the corner, and getting closer.

Everyone was supposed to be sleeping now, even her mother. Rose stepped carefully closer to the corner, her metaphorical hackles rising slowly and her body slipping into a subtle defense position. A tall thin shape stepped around the corner just as she did, and yelped as it back pedaled away from her shove. Casey held a hockey stick at the ready in his hands, looking startled as she felt.

“Oh shit-sorry, I didn't hear you coming,” He apologized, lowering his weapon.

Rose smoothed her emotions and shook her head. “No, I'm sorry. I did hear something coming along, but I wasn't sure what. I should have called out to alert you of my presence.”

Casey chuckled nervously. “Nah, that probably would have gotten me worse than running into you did.”

“All the same though,” Rose looked down at his sports equipment, raising an eyebrow in the gloom of the hallway. “Interesting companion for a walk around the house.”

“What-oh this thing,” Casey shrugged as he dropped its wide end fully onto the ground. “I, dunno, just wanted to get a feel for its grip or something. Take a look around while I did, see just how big this place really is.”

“You haven't even seen the basement laboratories yet,” Rose chuckled. “My mother has a great many rooms beneath this part of the house; you should ask to look around tomorrow. Even if many of them are off limits due to, and I’m quoting this, _“Hellaliciously dangerous s’periments”_ ; other than those rooms you should be allowed to see most of it.”

“Cool,” Casey agreed, chuckling at the names. “That name sounds like something two of my friends would come up with.”

“Oh, and what are your friends like?” Rose asked.

Casey leaned on his hockey stick, tilting his head in thought. “Well, for starters they’re all pretty cool. Like, they’re dad taught them a bunch of rad martial arts all their life and now they’re literal ninjas. And there’s four of ‘em, all brothers. They get into a ton of trouble, an’ I gotta bail ‘em out pretty often. Not that they don’t bail me out too. We’ve all got each other’s backs, even if we get on each other’s nerves a lot.”

“They sound like wonderful friends to have, will they be visiting?”

Casey had a brief flash of sadness in his eyes before shaking his head. “They wouldn’t be able to.”

“Why not? My mother would be more than happy to pay for their flights.”

“They got special circumstances, can’t leave New York at all. It sucks, but they gotta do what they gotta do,” Casey straightened himself, getting ready to leave. “I miss ‘em already, and it’s only been like one day. Raph’d make fun of me for it, ha.”

“I don’t think a friend would make fun of you for missing them,” Rose said sympathetically. “I see my friends almost every day now, but when we were younger there was three years where I could not see or talk with two of them. It was very lonely, and we aren’t keen on ever experiencing that again. The desire to be near people you care about it very normal, especially in the face of extended separation. And,” She put out an arm to stop Casey from pulling further away. “My mother would be happy to take you back to New York for regular visits if your friends cannot come to you. She is very accommodating towards myself and my friends; I don’t see why she wouldn’t extend this to you.”

“Would she really? I mean it’s a lotta money to fly places and she already moved us all the way up here-“

“I assure you, my mother has spent more money on less important things than helping you stay connected with your friends,” Rose said, thinking of all the ridiculous presents she’d gotten over the years and the ones for her friends and new family in the last one. “A flight there and back every few weeks won’t be even a bother.”

“Well, if you’re sure…”

Rose chuckled, and patted her cousin on the shoulder. “She’s most likely already got it planned for you, all you have to do is ask. Or you could not and let her surprise you in some ludicrous way. I would bet on a double decker cake for breakfast with _“Surprise trip to see your friends, congrats!”_ written in icing.”

Casey’s face did something of a cross between surprise and exasperation. “Your mom is a little weird. I mean, I’ve met weirder and she’s super nice, but yeah a little weird.”

“Oh Casey, we’re all weird here; it’s in the family genetics,” Rose laughed. “Wait until you meet my sister, she’s like my mother, but younger and all the more wily.”

Casey chuckled, showing gap teeth. “I can’t wait then; odd balls seem the type I seem to end up getting along with.”

“Are your friends of the strange side?”

“You have no idea,” Casey grinned, clearly laughing at an inside joke. Ah well, Rose would have plenty of time to decipher that in the days to come.

“Well, I am very tired; my friends as usual have managed to drag our evening through hell and back. It does tend to tire me out,” Rose pressed hand against her cheek and mock sighed. “And yet I allow myself to become drawn into it every time and, dare I say it, contribute to the chaos on most occasions.”

“Ha, ha, must’ve been some party,” Casey laughed. He stepped to the side so Rose could continue down the hall to her room. “You get some rest an’ stuff. I’m gonna wander a bit more before I hit the sack too.”

“Have a nice evening Casey, do watch out for any loose cats scampering about; we have a large population in the basement that make their way upstairs some nights,” Rose said as she walked away from him.

“Will do!” Casey replied, tossing a wave as he left the hall.

Rose hummed to herself as she entered her room. She flicked the on switch of a long cord that stretched around her room above her; filling the space with soft light from fairy lights. Leaving her purse and coat on the chair of her vanity, she started removing her jewelry and makeup.

Casey, though she hadn’t had a good chance to really Look, seemed to have a myriad of possibilities surrounding his future. Some ending badly, others with greatness, almost every one fraught with danger; even the one most likely at the moment. Rose wondered what sort of life her cousin led that could bring so many choices of fate into his life. Perhaps those mysterious friends in New York had a hand in things?

She dropped the makeup removal wipes into the waste basket and stood up to undress. Now that Casey lived with them, maybe she could ask her companions to assist her in making his life safer. Early expiration was a common ending for him, some not even making it past twenty. Rose could not See what events would cause this, only know that they would happen. The limitations to her abilities were always a difficulty, but she’d managed to work around them this long so she could pull this off.

 _No more dead kids_ , that was the general philosophy they’d adopted once the game had ended. Casey and Noel were family, even if they were new additions. If Casey had the fates moving against him, then she’d just have to rearrange them. She’d done it before, and she’d do it again.

A comfortable night gown brushed against her legs as she made her way to the bathroom, the only light coming from her room that splayed across the hall. She flicked on the lights inside and pulled open the cupboard, retrieving her tooth brush and tooth paste. Methodically, she cleaned her bottom and top teeth, not missing a spot. An indeterminate life span would not be as pleasant if her teeth rotted away, so she took very good care of them.

She washed her face briefly before exiting the bathroom, shutting off the bright lights. Her bare feet padded across the carpet, not a single sound. Rose turned off the fairy lights of her room and climbed onto her soft bed. Before she lay down, she popped open the window above her bed. The quiet sounds of nature filtered in, making it bearable to sleep now.

Rose lay down and pulled the covers up to her chin, letting herself relax enough to let sleep creep in.

 

 

 

On the other end of the house, Casey lay awake in his bed flicking through the picture gallery on his old phone.

The most recent ones were selfies in space, various bits of the cosmos in the background. Casey liked the one where he’d gotten Leo in the background being chased by yet another alien he’d hit on. On accident that time, but it was like the fifth time that week alone that he’d insulted someone in the process of flirting; accidental or not.

Of course, Leo wasn’t as bad as Donnie was with his stealing. Every time they went anywhere near a market to restock on fuel and supplies, Donnie managed to come back to the ship with even more stolen items than what they’d bought. Where he put them or how he got them no one knew, and didn’t want to ask. He only got caught twice, and went to jail one of those time and they had to break him out and wow that was a mess of a night. Donnie was grounded on the ship for a whole three market trips after that.

Casey laughed softly as he looked at a photo, a candid shot of Raph passed out on the couch and Mikey drawing everything he could think of on him with a sharpie. The next ones were of the whole group joining in on the scheme. Raph had been so pissed with them, and had shown it with his fists, but it’d been definitely worth it.

The corner of his phone said it was almost one thirty. Around this time his turtle friends would be getting back from their first round of patrols, unless they’d met trouble. But with Shredder laying low and the Kraang having basically withdrawn from New York completely, it wasn’t likely.

Speak of the devil, someone texted him right then. He reached over and grabbed his new T-phone off the side table, opening it to read the message. Donnie had sent him a cheery _“Look what we found!”_ with a photo to go with the text. It was of him selfie-ing in front of a Kraang ship inside of a warehouse; scattered bodies of dispatched Kraang droids surround him and his brothers. Raph wasn’t even facing the camera and Leo’s awkward smile made it clear he hadn’t been expecting a photo. Mikey was a blur as he ran at Donnie from behind, trying to photo bomb.

Casey texted back, _'s_ _ick!! whatre you gonna do with it?'_

_'Probably fix it up, if Sensei doesn’t try to stop me.”_

_'youd probably do it anyways'_

_'This is true, but don’t tell him that though; he’s still under the impression I need permission to do anything.'_

_'lol good luck with that bet youd get caught right away'_

_'I will have you know I can be very sneaky when I want to be. Subtlety is a part of being a ninja in case you forgot.'_

_'like how you were subtle with your feelings for april'_

_'Fuck off Jones.'_

_'already did bro im chillin in casa Lalonde rn'_

Donnie didn’t reply right away, the symbol that meant he was texting appeared and disappeared on and off for at least a minute. Casey felt a little bad; it wasn’t cool of him to put Don in that kind of situation, his bitterness about moving wasn’t aimed at his friend.

 _'sorry that wasn’t cool of me_  
  
_the ship looks super metal btw be sure to visit me in it sometime'_

 _'That’s one of the things we plan to do with it, yes. I have to patch the hull first because some people who will not be named (it was Leo) put a hole in it, and there are all sorts of possible tracking bugs or auto-pilot chips that could very likely be inside it._  
  
_We have to do a complete over haul of the thing before we can even think about flying it.'_

 _'cool_  
  
_take your time its not like im going anywhere fast'_

Mikey interrupted the conversation by texting him too, his message in all caps and emoticons.

 _'DID YOU SEE THE SHIP (°_ _∀_ _°)(°_ _∀_ _°)(°_ _∀_ _°)'_

_'_ _yeah i did its pretty fucking sweet'_

_'IKR I CANT WAIT TO GO FLYING IN IT_

_ITLL BE JUST LIKE SPACE AGAIN!!!_ ♪┏ ( ･o･) ┛♪┗ (･o･ ) ┓♪┏(･o･)┛♪'

_'cant wait buddy pick me up when you got it working'_

Leo texted him too, asking him to please stop replying to his brothers, they were still in the field after all. Raph texted right after saying that Casey should tell Leo to fuck off and let them text, followed by an amount of insults aimed at Leo he’d picked up in space. Casey sent Leo a screen shot of Raph’s text, which prompted a _“What did you do Casey, Leo and Raph are punching each other again.”_ from Donnie.

 _'EVERYONES FIGHTING WHAT DID YOU DOOOO??? D:'_ Mikey texted him. A photo of Raph holding Leo in a strangle hold on the ground with Donnie trapped underneath the pile was sent right afterwards, along with ' _T_ _ALK SHIT GET HIT O VVV O.'_

Casey saved everything with screen shots, since it was pure gold. He’d send it to April tomorrow when she was awake again.

He then noticed almost two in the morning, yikes. His sleep schedule had become majorly screwed since he’d gotten to know the turtles and April, and had gotten even worse in space where they had no set time to sleep other than “when we aren’t being shot at”. Maybe if he closed his eyes and focused really hard he could, sleep like everyone else in the house was doing.

He turned off his phones and put them on the table, no need for alarms since Noel would wake him up before noon at the latest. He had a really awesome little sister; this new life for them was going to be great for her.

Casey pulled the lightly scented sheet up and over his head, shuffling under until he was completely covered. At least his pillow still smelt like home, since he’d brought his old one with him. He pulled that over his head too and prayed that he’d fall asleep at least before four.

 

 

 

“Problem with that, now follow me closely here the science is pretty complicated, is if I cut a hole in the ship, the air won’t stay _inside_ anymore,” Donnie said, completely done with his brothers suggestions on how to fix the ship. He clasped his hands together and deadpanned at his siblings. “If anyone else has any more ideas on how I, the tech genius, should repair this very advance piece of technology, speak now or fuck off all of you.”

Raph rolled his eyes. “It was just a suggestion.”

“A _very bad_ and _extremely_ _flawed_ suggestion, Raph,” Donnie said, rolling his eyes as well. He was too tired for this, always too tired for this. “I can’t just cut off a portion of the ship like that; I’ll have to remove only the pieces that’ll transmit our location. Which will take time and effort if I don’t want it exploding or ruining the hull; or at worst sending out an emergency beacon.” He waited a moment, and when his brothers didn’t move he sighed. “That means all of you leave me alone now so I can work on it. Please.”

Leo shrugged, crossing his arms. “We can’t leave you alone, we don’t know if this thing has any surprises. We have to stick around to keep an eye on you.”

“I can take care of myself Leo,” Donnie said, sounding very unimpressed. “I am a ninja, just like all of you.”

“Yeah, but you get all distracted an’ stuff when you’re working,” Mikey piped up from his position on top of the ship. “We’ll just hang around in case you need a quick save, that way you can focus everything on fixing the T-ship!”

“We are not calling it the T-ship,” Leo objected. “Space ships need cool names, like _Agincourt_ or _The Enterprise_.”

“Why can’t we just call it “the space ship” and be done with it,” Raph said in a bored tone.

Leo looked genuinely affronted at Raph’s suggestion. “All space ships need a cool name, it’s an unwritten rule!”

“Maybe it’s unwritten because it doesn’t actually fucking matter what you call a fucking ship.”

“Hey _I’m_ the one names stuff, and I already named the ship-“

“-We are not calling it the T-ship! Half our gear already has “Turtle” in the name!” Leo protested.

“Oh my god _it doesn’t matter what it’s called-_ “

“Why don’t we let the guy who’s repairing the ship in the first place name it?” Donnie asked, not bothering to raise his voice over the clamor of his sibling. “No? No takers on that idea? Fine, whatever you guys agree on that’ll be the name. I’m going to go do some actual work now.” He flicked down his tinted goggles and picked up his tool boxes. Once Sensei had given the all clear, they’d come back to the new warehouse they’d stashed the ship in. With a bit of hacking on his part, Donnie had managed to put the for-sale warehouse down as a very fictional, but definitely legally existing, Dona Tello’s property. A little skimming from Walmart’s bank accounts, and he owned the property. No human would be entering it now, what with the very high fences with electricity running through it, so they could fix and store the ship without issue.

He plugged in his equipment and left it to warm up, hopping up onto the hull to start looking deeper into the problems he had to face. Alien tech versus his salvaged earth tech. Piece of cake, he’d been at this for almost two years now; this Kraang ship wasn’t going to be even a challenge.

He swung down over the lip of the ship and into the open back doors, going to check that it wasn’t sending or receiving any sort of signal still. The ship was bigger than the fighter drones they’d stolen and blown up during the first invasion of New York, probably meant more for carrying droids to where they needed to be in large number. Good for them, in case they ever needed to evacuate all of their family and allies from the city.

Donatello ran his fingers across the control board and smiled, they had their own space ship now; something not even the Shredder had. For however much it counted, they had superior fire power at the moment. It could mean the difference between life and death for them, especially since Oroku Saki would be coming back with even more vengeance than usual; thanks to their father defeating him in combat once again.

Donnie sighed, his family had made so many enemies, and at this point they’d made more than they had friends. And now, with Casey out of reach, they were down one of their main fighters; and a close friend. Donnie picked fights with the guy, sure, but at the end of the day they were close. After two years of risking your lives together, you get to know a guy. Shared love interest or not, Casey had wormed his way into being friends with him.

The pink controls shone and beeped as Donnie sorted through the ship’s files. Most of it he couldn’t translate, but he got the general idea. He was right about the ship being meant to transport soldiers, since portals took time and power to set up in new locations it would be easier to just fly their droids into the fight. The ship’s hull was made to withstand heavy hits, and its engine had enough power to go long distances without refueling. Perfect, this was exactly the sort of ship they needed. Leo might argue that they needed more offensive power, guns, lasers, etc; but Donnie knew a getaway vehicle was more valuable any day of the week.

Lose the battle, live to win the war; a personal motto of his. His head strong and battle hungry brothers might disagree, but Donnie was practical. They could live anywhere from seventy to two hundred years, and he planned to make it so they made it there and plus some. Dying because his brothers didn’t make the right call would be a stupid way to go.

Donnie thought he should probably talk with Leo about his bad calls in battle lately; their encounters with near death had risen since Leo recovered from his fight with Shredder all those months ago. Donnie figured his brother needed time to readjust to being up and around; but Leo’s erratic behavior warranted closer inspection now that his heart had _literally stopped beating_ after his hair-brained scheme to take on a floating war nation in a scout ship.

If it wasn’t for the electric shock function of his staff… Donnie shuddered at the thought. Their plastrons made it almost impossible to do CPR, without that jolt Leo might not have come home with them. No, his older brother was definitely dealing with some serious issues if he thought that plan was a good one.

Donnie hadn’t had a chance to pull his brother aside and evaluate him yet, but he’d find a moment soon. This stupidity couldn’t continue, one of them would end up dead. Or worse, all of them would.

Donnie groaned and slapped his hands over his face; pushing his goggles away. He was the guy with the machines, not the guy for battle tactics. If _he_ was noticing, then there was something wrong for sure. Donnie’s self-taught knowledge of psychology gave him more perspective than his brothers, but he wasn’t a real doctor. He didn’t know what to do really, other than to correct Leo’s choices whenever he could and try to encourage good behavior. In all likelihood, the choices Leo was making came from trauma and brain chemistry imbalances. It made the job of helping his brother back to his more sensible self all the more daunting, since it was extremely rare for people in his brother’s mind set to realize this themselves and try to fix things on their own.

Ugh, if only their father would let them drink. If only their anatomy didn’t require enormous amounts of alcohol to get drunk. Donnie could really use a stiff drink right now.

“Focus on the really cool space ship Don, just focus on that and the chance to go visit Casey,” Donnie said to himself, removing his hands from his face. He took a deep breath and started at the controls again, beginning the reprogramming. He could see his brothers tussling outside through the shaded viewpoint, not paying attention in the least.

Oh well, they’d be there if he really needed them. If he was in real trouble, they would be there in a second. Even if they drifted or fought or acted bone-headed (like Leo was lately), they were there for one another.

Donnie cracked his knuckles and started deleting unnecessary code in the ship’s data base.

 

 

 

Noel Jones opened her eyes to the brand new ceiling of her brand new house.

Light was coming in through the windows, soft and comforting. Her window back in New York had faced the rising sun too, so it was like she’d brought a bit of her old home with her!

Her older brother and father might be a night persons, but Noel was most definitely a morning person. Her black hair stuck up in odd angles as she rolled literally out of bed, catching herself on all fours before she smacked into the carpeted floor. She stood up with a soft _“hup!”_ with her arms stuck out. It was going to be a good day, she was sure of it.

She hadn’t gotten much unpacking done last night, so her clothes were still in their boxes or half ways into her dresser. Her rediscovered game boy and Pokémon game had been too tempting to ignore, its black and white graphics sang sweetly at her until she’d given in.

 She’d just put everything away before she went to wake him up, that way he’d never know she hadn’t done it in the first place! Noel nodded to herself as she pulled on an old band t-shirt from Casey two Christmases ago. It was still super big on her, even though she’d grown and everything, so it reached her knees like a dress. She pulled on a pair of shorts just to make sure no one would see her panties, since her brother sometimes picked her up and carried her around like a sack of potatoes or held her upside down by the feet until she agreed to brush her hair.

She didn’t bother with her brush, since he wouldn’t wake up for a while yet anyways. Aunt Roxane was super nice, so she wouldn’t care if Noel didn’t brush her hair before breakfast. Noel grabbed her sparkly purple bead bracelets out of her special jewelry box and pulled them on; they matched the purple eyes of the demon with four hands and two guitars on her shirt just right!

Noel skipped out of her room and into the hall, she felt all light and happy today. She had a huge new house to explore and three new family members to get to know. She hadn’t seen “Roxy” yet, but Rose had seemed very nice. Maybe the two older girls would want to go shopping with her for new t-shirts some time, since Casey didn’t like shopping very much. He said it was because the adults in the store would always glare at him, since he looked like a “delinquent” or something.

Noel took the cold steps down towards the kitchen one at a time, careful not to slip and fall. There wasn’t anyone in the kitchen yet when she got there, but she guessed that was ‘cause it was only eight in the morning. Guess her aunt and cousin Rose were night time people too. Noel put her hands on her hips and huffed. It looked like it was up to her to make the food, just like back in New York.

The big fridge had a lot more stuff than at home, which was great since there were two extra people to feed now. She carefully took the eggs and milk out of the fridge, setting them on the counter before going back for onions and parsley. There was no stool around for her to use, so she dragged a chair from the dining patio out back into the kitchen. Noel made sure to put the very nice looking cushion away from the food, since she didn’t want to stain such a pillow.

There were bowls under the counter and cutting boards under the stove in the pull out storage; Noel got both onto the counter and grabbed a large knife before starting. She  v e r y  c a r e f u l l y  cut the onion in half and chopped up the parsley with one of the halves. She’d seen Mrs. Moquino upstairs do this a lot of times, and even helped a bunch of those times. Noel remembered the right heating for the pan to sauté the veggies before putting the eggs in, and how to be sure they were cooked right.

She whisked the eggs and milk as the pan sputtered away with the veggies, adding it once it was okay to. Noel left the food briefly to rinse the board and knife, and grabbed some fruits from the fridge. Multitasking between washing out the egg bowl and tending to the cooking scrambled eggs, Noel added fruit salad to the meal. Strawberries, apples, blue berries, and even some banana. Noel was very glad aunt Rox had given her permission to eat whatever she wanted in the fridge, so long as it wasn’t all the time or super sugary. Making breakfast for everyone counted as eating whatever she wanted for sure.

“Oh my, what’s all this?” Asked a voice behind Noel. Noel turned around from pushing the eggs in the pan, and saw Rose standing in a bath robe and with messy bed hair. Rose yawned and leaned against the door frame. “I can’t say I expected to find such a meal this early in the morning. I came down here for an apple only.”

“The salad has apples!” Noel said cheerfully. “And the eggs are almost done, so just wait a sec ‘kay?”

“Take your time,” Rose said as she came further into the kitchen. “I might as well take this opportunity to get a drink while I wait.” Rose pulled a glass from the cupboards and filled it with tap water. Noel tried not to watch too closely as her cousin pulled out a small orange container with pills in it from her robe. After Rose swallowed two, she drank the whole glass of water without stopping.

Noel couldn’t contain her curiosity any longer after Rose put down the glass. “Are you sick like my friend Diane’s mama is?”

Rose turned her head to look at Noel, surprised by the question. “Well, it depends on what sort of sick your friend’s mother is.”

“Mrs. Moquino has brain chemistry imbalances, I think at least. That’s what she when I asked her if I could have one of her tic-tacs; which were actually her medicine,” Noel turned off the stove and started pulling plates down from the shelves. Rose stepped over to help her, since she didn’t want the child falling off the chair. “Thanks!”

“My pleasure,” Rose said as she took the three plates from Noel’s grasp. “And it’s something like brain chemistry imbalances, but it’s also other things that make it necessary I take my medication.”

“What sorta things?” Noel asked as she took a plate to put eggs on.

“Private things. Things that happened to me when I was much younger,” Rose replied, handing Noel another plate to fill. “My medication helps me regulate my emotions and reactions surrounding those things. But I’d rather not tell you what those things are.”

“That’s okay, Casey can’t tell me stuff like that either,” Noel said, nodding along as she filled the last plate. “I understand that older kids an’ adults can’t tell me some stuff, an’ that some things you just can’t talk about. Like how daddy couldn’t ever talk about mommy, or Casey can’t talk about where he was during the invasion by the Kraang last year.” Noel put some fruit salad onto Rose’s plate before handing it to her. She smiled toothily, proudly showing off her missing bottom teeth. “You don’t gotta feel like you have to tell me, I was just wonderin’ and stuff.”

“That’s very kind of you Noel, not to pry into my issues,” Rose said, taking the plate and smiling back at Noel. “Thank you for the food; and you’re a very mature young lady for understanding.”

“No problem, an’ I get that a lot!” Noel said as she put fruit salad onto her and her aunt’s plates. She’d make more for Casey later. “You wanna eat with me after I take your mom’s food to her?”

“I’ll accompany you to my mother’s room, and drag her down for breakfast instead,” Rose said, setting her plate back onto the counter. “Will your brother be joining us?”

“Nope, he sleeps really late if it’s the weekend usually; but since we aren’t in school right now I don’t have to wake him up anyways!” Noel said as she hopped off her chair. “Aunty Rox’s room is upstairs right?”

“Indeed it is, so let us ascend the stairway to seek her out,” Rose replied as they started walking out of the room. Noel took the stairs two at a time, excited to have her first breakfast with her new family.

Yes, this was definitely going to be a wonderful, excellent, fantastically good day!

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Watch me spiral further into my own hell with this fic.
> 
> This won't stop until it's done, my muse won't let me rest.
> 
> fml.


	3. Act 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to finish this horrible crossover if it's the last thing I do, even if no one likes it.

 

 

Casey woke up feeling like there was something pressing down on him.

He dropped a hand over his eyes, the light of the room stinging, and tried unsuccessfully to move onto his side. Groaning, he lifted his hand and head to look at what was holding him down. He had seven black soccer balls lying on top of him.

Correction, seven _furry_ black soccer balls. That blinked. And had pink tongues. And were cats.

Why was he covered in cats.

The one on his chest reached over with a paw a batted at his nose, clearly displeased with Casey moving around. He blinked blearily, everything was too bright and it was definitely way too early for him to be awake. Was this a prank of Don and Mikey's? Did he fall asleep on the couch again, and Donnie finally get to experimenting with cloning and mutagen?

Wait, no, he wasn't even in New York anymore; Donnie and Mikey were miles away with everyone else. Casey's brain woke up all the way and remembered why he was in such a comfy bed; though not why he was being trapped by cats.

He scratched the ears of the one of his chest, trying to puzzle things out. They weren't attacking him, and it wasn't likely any of their enemies would put effort into a cat themed attack; and they wouldn't even know where he was now.

“Goooood kitty,” Casey said, tickling the cat under the chin. “Where'd you guys come from anyways?”

Hadn't Rose said something about this? Cats living in the basement, right. He scratched the cat all over its head until he started on the middle of its forehead. That was a third eye. Okay. Not the weirdest thing he ever saw, but why?

More of the cats were getting up and coming closer, asking for scratches too. They all had varying amounts of eyes, and some had double ears even. A smaller one pushed his chest cat out of the way, smacking him in the face with twin tails. Soon enough Casey' chest and stomach were thoroughly encased in fuzzy bodies, every one of them rumbling with purrs.

Casey lay still, pinned to his bed by furry captors.

“What the fuck,” He wondered aloud.

 

 

 

When Roxane went to wake Casey up, along with Noel, for a mandatory family breakfast, she found herself very glad her phone had a high quality camera.

“Oh, em, gee,” Roxane cackled, seeing Casey's predicament. She whipped out her phone and started snapping pictures like mad. “You've made some friends Casey!”

“Aunt Rooooox,” Casey whined, grimacing at the phone's lens. “Help me, I can't get up and I gotta pee like crazy!”

“You have kitties!” Noel squealed, starting to pet every cat she could within her reach. “You didn't say you had kitties!”

“Usually they live in the basement, but we do have a lot of kitties!” Roxane laughed, zooming in on Casey's scowl and snapping another pic. “They're test subjects for cloning, which went way out of control by the way; now I think we have maybe three dozen of these lil guys living around here! Can't imagine getting rid of even one of them, so we kept 'em all!”

“ _Please_ aunt Roxane, I really gotta go!” Casey said again, trying to dislodge the cats. “Can't you like, tell them to f-I mean go away?”

“C'mon babies, offa Casey you go,” Roxane said, starting to pick up cats and place them on the carpet. They meowed in annoyance, some trying to hop back onto the bed again. Casey, soon as most were off of him, gently pushed the last two off and jumped up; running from the room for the washroom.

Noel had three cats in her lap and another one on her shoulders, and her face looked like it was a Christmas miracle. She looked up at her aunt, eyes wide, filled with wonder, and whispered reverently, “There's so many.”

“Yes there are,” Roxane said, picking up another fluff ball and petting its two sets of ears. “We have even more downstairs, and we can go meet them when I show you the labs later.”

“I can’t believe you have so many kitties,” Noel whispered, holding her fuzzy friends close. “Can I keep them?”

“Sure can! They're family pets, and you’re our family; there for, you already own them silly!” Roxane reached down and booped her cousin on the tip of her nose. “You can have as many kitties as you want, they'll go great with your princess curtain!”

“When do those get here? I forgot.”

Roxane hummed as she thought. “I'm pretty sure it'll get here tomorrow, or the day after. Shipping moves quickly, so it shouldn't be too long!”

“M'kay,” Noel said, nodding as she pet her kitties. “Will you help me put them up when they get here?”

“Of course!” Roxane said. “I wouldn't make you hang them all by your lonesome.”

“I'll help too, Noel,” Casey said as he came back into his bedroom, looking relieved and fresher from a quick splash of water. “Does anyone know what time it is? It feels early.”

“It's after nine!” Noel said, reading from the numbers on her brother's clock. “Sorry we woke you up early an' stuff, but aunt Roxane wants us to have a family breakfast.”

Casey stifled a yawn. “Sounds good to me, you make good food for a nine year old, Noel. I’m lookin' forwards to whatever you cooked up.”

“Hup to then, foods getting cold!” Roxane said, walking from the room with the cats still in her arms. “Bring your kitties with you Noel; they can eat some kibbles with us.”

“Casey, here, take these kitties,” Noel pushed two small cats into Casey's arms, and stood up with the remaining three. She walked quickly as she could with the cats out the door. “C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, it's our first family breakfast. We gotta get there before the eggs get cold!”

Casey juggled to the two balls of fuzz in his arms, eliciting murrs and meows as he tried to hold them right. “I'm trying!” He stumbled a little as the last free cats wound their way around his legs and out the door with Noel. “Yikes, watch out fuzzballs!”

Roxane chuckled to herself as Noel went past her down the stairs, Casey struggling to follow; the poor boy kept having to move his feet out of the way as the cats knocked into him with their heads.

“Why do they like me so much?! I’m not even a cat person!” Casey said, scrunching his left eye closed as one of the cats in his arms started licking his face.

“Oh Casey, your related to us; so cats will like you even if you don't like them!” Roxane said, petting the two cats in her arms. “We Lalondes have a long history of kitty cats being our very best friends, so I’m not surprised your being so heartily welcomed! Your mom had three cats before she married your dad, and they loved her as much as she loved them.”

Casey stopped at the top of the stairs and let the cats continue giving him affection. “Mom was a cat person?”

“Almost as much as I am! Our whole family, what's left of it at least, has had at least five cats. Though we sorta went overboard with how many babies we got here.”

Casey looked at the two purring cats in his arms and the ones around his legs. “Well, I had some stray cats I knew in New York; they were sorta friendly for alley cats.”

Roxane knocked into his arm with her elbow. “See? Cat person, total natural.”

Casey laughed. “I guess, but I think I’m more of a reptile man.”

“You'll come around,” Roxane adjusted her grip on her kitties and started down the steps again. “C'mon, Rosie's waiting for us and I'm not gonna put it past her to steal all the good fruits from the salad!”

Casey followed her, being very careful not to trip and fall to his death on the cats.

 

 

 

Over breakfast, Rose observed her cousin Casey.

He looked tired, black circles underneath his eyes prominent. His insomnia pointed towards him being used to nocturnal hours, and his restlessness indicated his late night activities had been physically demanding. That may explain the wiry muscles in his currently exposed arms, his plain white t-shirt giving her a good look at them.

The scars and fading bruises could have come from his father, but the nastier ones she would put good money on being from his nightly experiences. Rose sipped her coffee as she mentally compared the angles and depths of the scars with Dave's or Dirk's; sword slashes were something she was familiar with. Her cousin certainly got up to things if he was encountering bladed weaponry.

Rose bit into a forked amount of fruits and briefly wished for her younger self's recklessness when it came to interrogation; subtlety was something she'd begun practicing, seeing as her thirteen year old self's directness with questions had led to many a blunder on her part. Brute force might quick, but it left a fall out of varying impacts. She supposed that Casey would dodge the direct questions no matter how she phrased them; so subtlety it would have to be.

She took the opportunity to look deeper into Casey's fortunes, a soft light appearing inside her pupils as she did. His potential paths were still wildly varied, some tangling together to form a single one in later years ahead. In her mind's Sight, Rose could see close events to their current time and place. Friends, and foes, were looking for Casey. His removal from a different game board had rocked things, and was making a wave of changes.

Without those friends or enemies here, she couldn't tell what his purpose had been, or why it was so important; but she could tell that while Casey and Noel's removal from their former house had been good for them, it might spell doom for others.

His allies would find him again in the near future, in every potential timeline they would find Casey; no matter where the Lalondes took him. Rose smiled slightly, that sort of dedication was rare. She'd have to warn her mother that Casey would very likely need to go back to New York soon. In a year, probably less; her cousin's part in the grand scheme of something was very big indeed.

Just what he was involved in eluded her; just that it was larger than anything a high school student should be involved in. Rose almost sighed, remembering just what it was she'd been involved in not too long ago.  Was it a family trait, to get yourself snarled up in messes that left the world depending on you? If so, who knew what Noel would get herself into.

Rose finished her coffee and reminded herself she'd need to talk with her companions later, and meditate on how to convince Casey to spill his secrets.

 

 

 

“Holy shit, that's a lot of cats,” Casey said.

“Language!” Noel said, slapping her brother's side. “I'm still small!”

“Sorry, just... so many cats!” Casey waved his arms at the room filled with tens of cats. “I know you said you had a bunch, but this is insane!”

“Ha, ha, it might be, but it's the best kind of insanity!” Aunt Roxane laughed. She knelt down and rubbed her hands over the kitties starting to cluster around the three of them. “We used to try naming them, but we could never keep track of who was who! And they slip out of collars too easy, so name tags were out too. Now we just call them babies, since they’re my little babies!” Roxane let cats start climbing onto her, each one demanding attention.

Casey knelt too, letting the cats swarm him. Their fur was so soft, like something from Wall Street back in NYC. And even with the extra eyes or mouths or limbs, they were incredibly adorable. He dug out his phone, the T-phone specifically, and lay back onto the carpet. The cats were on him in a moment, nuzzling against his cheeks and collar bone. He waited until there were enough around him before snapping a couple selfies. He then took a couple of his aunt and Noel talking together.

He sent the whole set to his friends, expecting the turtles to reply later when they woke up and April's reply once classes were on break. It was after ten, so she'd be available soon enough. Casey tucked the phone back into his hoodie's pocket and went back to petting the cats on top of him. “I think this is the most cats I’ve ever seen in one place aunt Rox, how do you feed them all?”

“Oh you know me, money to burn and waaaay too much free time to program,” His aunt said, smiling down at him. “The machines attached to the wall over there? It puts out food for them on a schedule and keeps track of how much eat baby eats. And! It'll tell me if one of 'em looks sick or injured. I had a lot of fun doing that with Roxy; she's almost as good with coding as I am! Though we did get a bit of help from her friend Dirk with the camera and automated distribution limbs. Robots are kinda his thing.”

“Is everyone you guys know a genius?”

“Mmmmnot really, but it's darn near close. And even then, those of us who aren't are really good with other things. Like music, or baking, or prank wars! Ooh, just you wait until the next prank war around here; last time it happened, someone stacked all the cars on top of the city hall down the mountain!” Aunt Roxane cackled to herself, remembering what had led up to that. “Ooh boy did we get in trouble, but a little hush money cleared things up quick like.”

“When's the next one? I wanna try!” Noel said as she added another cat to her arms. “I know a bunch of really good ones!”

“Probably once you two are settled in more, Rose's friends will drop by to start hazing you,” Roxane reached over and plucked an intrepid kitten off of Casey's chest. She kissed its small head and rubbed its tiny ears. “John has way less restraint than Jane, so he'll probably be the first one to go after you.” She winked one of her perfectly dusted eyes at Casey. “I'm sure you can handle it, but you might want to start checking for buckets of water above doors or goo in your shoes!”

“Pft, like they could pull one over Casey Jones' eyes,” Casey snorted. Half because he doubted anyone could prank him now that he'd spent the last two years on a hair trigger, and half because a cat's tail was tickling his nose. He sneezed violently, causing his pile of cats to scatter. “Aw, man.”

“Well, as much as I’d like to stay here forever, we gotta finish the tour. I need to show you kids what rooms are off limits,” Roxane set her kitten down and shooed the others off her lap. “You can come back when we’re all finished.”

“Can I bring one with me?” Noel asked, holding up a small adult cat with four eyes. “He’s super cute an’ well behaved!”

“Only if you make sure not to put him down anywhere dangerous to kitties,” Roxane reached out and scratched the purring cat’s ears.

“Okay, I'll make sure,” Noel agreed, bringing the kitty close to her chest and petting his back.

Casey stood up and noticed he was covered in cat hair. He brushed at the fur clinging to him, and frowned when it stayed stubbornly on his clothes. A couple more annoyed swipes and he gave up; he’d need a lint roller or something to get it off. At least the fur was black like his clothes, so it didn’t stand out a ton.

Casey followed his aunt and sister with his hands in his pockets, relaxed and curious about the huge labs underneath the building above. Rose had been telling the truth when she’d said the place was huge. The doors were far spaced from one another on the account of the enormous rooms inside. Every one held machines like the ones from Donnie’s lab, but newer looking. Some had stuff that looked like mechanized exercise equipment, and others had tables of empty beakers held up by delicate looking racks. A couple were locked completely, and had dire warnings of radiation on the doors. Yeah, he wouldn’t be going in there any time soon.

He didn’t have much comment on the rooms excluding the ones with the supped up exercise equipment; he’d seen labs like this before, Donnie’s and the Kraang’s and even Fugitoid’s; nothing to him new really. Noel thought it was really neat though, and fired off questions about everything. Aunt Roxane seemed more than happy to answer each one, looking loose and enthusiastic compared to her office persona he’d seen in court. He vaguely remembered her being like that with him as a kid, loud and giggly with his mom when she visited.

The tour ended with a stair way going deeper down behind a reinforced door, Roxane explaining her most sensitive and secret projects were down there. They weren’t allowed under any circumstances to be down there unless she ever gave them permission. Fair trade, considering the fancy digs she gave them upstairs on the main floors. A little privacy was expected from them, not to mention respect.

With the tour finished, Roxane invited them upstairs to see the media center before she started her work. Casey and Noel agreed, excited to test out the gaming system and network options.

The two of them spent most of the first day on the couches trying multiple games; player versus player in fighting games, racing against the AI and each other in Mario Cart, etc.

They were uninterrupted until somebody dropped right onto the middle of the large couch Casey and Noel were sharing. The shock of having someone basically appear from thin air, _(how did Casey not hear them coming?),_ made him jolt and drop his controller. The person grabbed it from its fall and took his place in the game.

“’Sup cuz?” The girl beside him grinned, speeding his cart into first place with a few well-placed blue shells. “Sorry it took me so long to show up, but a girl’s gotta have some vay-kay time with her friends sometimes!” She looked over at Casey as his-now-her character won first place, grinning widely with black lipstick and bouncy blonde hair. “I’m Roxy, nice to meet’cha; heard we’re housemates now!”

“Uh,” Casey replied.

“Oh my god, how’d you do that?!” Noel cried, shocked by Roxy’s sudden appearance and come-back win in the game. “I was gonna win finally!”

Roxy cackled as she handed the controller back to Casey. “Looootta practice squirt, I spent years honing my gaming mojo. Your Noel right? I’m Roxy, Rose’s older sister. And other stuff too, but mostly her older sister.”

“You _have’ta_ teach me that trick,” Noel said, watching the points roster slide across the screen. “I can only win against Casey sometimes.”

“You bet your butt I’m gonna teach you my tricks,” Roxy exaggeratedly winked at the smaller girl. “I’ve been lookin’ forwards to hanging with you NYC kids; we don’t get too many new faces around here. And since your living with us, we got all the time in the world to get to know each other!”

“So where’ve you been then, your mom never mentioned you went for a vacation; just that you wouldn’t be ‘round when we got here,” Casey asked, pausing the game to focus on Roxy.

“We got some friends that own an island,” Roxy replied, like owning a whole island wasn’t weird. “My besties Dirk and Jake live there, so me an’ Janey went to hang around for a bit. We did the usual teen things, like camping in the rain, swimming all nakey like, sleepin’ under the stars. That sorta thing!” She waggled her eyebrows at Casey. “You ever did anything like that with your friends?”

“Well…” Casey thought about how long it’d taken to get to the farm house, a hours at most, and how none of the turtles ever wore clothes ever, let alone when swimming, and the trip into space. “Technically? Yeah, technically I did that stuff with my friends.”

Noel poked around Roxy to give him a weird look. “How do you ‘technically’ do that?”

Casey shrugged. “It gets weird with my friends.”

“Amen to that!” Roxy laughed. “The shenanigans me an’ my crew get up to are crazy, I can’t wait for you guys to all meet.”

“Rose said somethin’ ‘bout people dropping in unannounced sometimes; kinda like you just did,” Casey pointed at her and Roxy laughed. “They gonna do sh-stuff like that any time soon?”

“Mmm, probably. I’m pretty sure I overheard Jade saying she wanted to meet you two in the next lil while,” Roxy pulled her purse, which hung around her neck, into her lap and retrieved her phone. “Here, lemme show you two who’s who in the gang.”

Roxy slid her phone open and tapped rapidly on the keys. Once she’d gotten the photo folders open, she motioned for the two Jones’ to move closer to her. Casey looked down at the screen, and saw a group photo of eight people.

“Kay, so that’s me an’ Rose,” Roxy said, pointing at them both. “And then we got Jakey in the glasses here, and John in the even thicker glasses, and Janey in even _more_ glasses. Then that’s Dirk an’ Dave in the shades, fricking nerds I tell you. And lastly that’s Jade with all the hair and again, glasses. Hrm, never noticed how many people need eye gear before.”

“What’s on her head?” Noel asked, pointing at Jade again. Casey looked closer and noticed white things sticking off the girl’s head. Ears? He hadn’t seen those when she was in the jeep last night.

“Jade likes to cosplay stuff, so she’s got some fancy hair clips for it!” Roxy explained, closing her phone again. “She wears those ones the most, so whenever you meet her, just compliment her on her sweet costume!”

“I want some,” Noel said, kicking her legs thoughtfully. “It’d be like being a mutant from x-men or something!” She looked up at Roxy and grinned. “Nightcrawler’s my favorite; he’s got a cool tail and can teleport.”

“Ooh! I love those movies, you ever thought of what kinda mutant you’d wanna be?”

“Mhm! I want cat ears and sharp claws; not like Wolverine’s though, those look like they hurt a lot.”

“Totes would,” Roxy agreed, nodding gravely. “No tail though?”

“I'd have to put holes in all my pants to have one,” Noel explained seriously. “And clothes cost money, so I try hard not to put holes in 'em.”

“That, and you'd probably sit on it all the time,” Casey added, Noel sticking her tongue out at him in response.

“And what would you want?” Roxy asked, elbowing Casey gently in the side. “You ever think up a super ‘sona?”

“Duh,” Casey scoffed. School was the most boring part of his life, and his attention always drifted during lessons; daydreaming was a serious hobby of his. He struck a pose, flexing his arms and smirking. “Super strength and lightning fast reflexes, the winning combo.”

Roxy giggled, fake swooning. “Defs a great combo, but I’m more of a stealth chick. I choose invisibility, intangibility, aaaand flight. Yeah, perf.”

“You can't have that many powers, it's not fair!” Noel said, tugging on Roxy's sleeve.

Roxy reached over and tweaked Noel's nose, before darting away from the couch. “Just you try an' stop me, can't catch what you can't see!”

“Hey!” Noel cried indignantly, leaping after Roxy.

“Your It!” Roxy hollered as she ran out of the room, Noel in close pursuit. Casey sat up and looked over the couch's back, listening to the sounds of feet and shouting. Casey had a moment of nostalgia for the turtle brothers, before snapping from it as Roxy came hurtling back into the room. As she ran by, she yelled at him: “Heyd'youknowwhereRoseis?!”

“Uh, I think her meditation room?” Casey replied as Noel jumped the coffee table to grab at Roxy. Roxy dodged again and clambered over the couch, nearly catching Casey in the head with her knee; Noel followed her cousin and actually did nail Casey's temple.

 _“Thanksabunchtalklater!!”_ Was Roxy's parting call as she shot up the stairs, Noel still hot on her trail. Casey blinked in his sudden isolation and realized the whole interaction had taken no more than two minutes. The loading screen for Mario Cart chimed happily in the background as he rubbed his face; a couple more hours of sleep would've made that interaction less startling.

Was his cousin always like that? He kinda hoped so, an enthusiastic gamer girl that was clearly athletic might make his stay here less mind numbing. Rose was nice, but he didn't think they'd have much in common. Hopefully Roxy would be more on his level; she seemed to be getting along with Noel just fine already.

He waited a couple more minutes before giving up on Noel coming back; she must've gotten involved in something with their cousins. He turned off the television and dropped the game counsels back into the basket case. He needed to get to planning out his room's graffiti make over anyways, the packages of paint was supposed to get here sometime today.

 

 

 

The amount of spray paints and assorted accessories boggled Casey when he finally got them up to his room. Rose hadn’t been kidding about how extravagant her mother was.

The delivery truck finally showed up just before dinner was being ordered in from a sushi shop in town. The three huge boxes that were unloaded from it could have fit Noel inside; which they did when she took one of the empty ones and ran away with it. Roxy had gone with Noel too, plotting with the smaller girl on how to make the box into a functioning tank.

Casey's notebook was already filled with possible designs, so once he got the sheets spread out he was ready to go. He had enough time to start with the base colors before dinner was called; he ate his noodles and chicken quickly and absconded back to his room again. Aunt Roxane popped in once or twice to check up on his progress, but left Casey alone for the most part. Casey didn't see Rose even at dinner; the other girl had vanished from the house at some point during the day to go be with her friends apparently. He wondered how she'd left without him noticing, or taking the car.

He didn't give it much thought, too busy working with cans of aerosol.

Final product was finished long after the evening turned into night. Heavily stylized versions of his name, April's, and the four brothers' now clustered together on his wall; each done in colors associated with them. The six names overlapped and tangled with each other, just like the actual people had done in real life. Casey sat back on the paint splattered sheets and swiped at his nose; unknowingly smearing green paint there. Not bad for a first go after months without practice.

Roxy knocked on the frame of his open door to announce her presence. “Knock, knock mister artist man. How's the masterpiece?”

“All finished,” Casey waved her in to come look. Roxy stepped in and immediately started ooh-ing about the drying paints.

“Think you could do a thing for me? My room could do with somethin' new to look at,” Roxy asked, tapping her fingers on her chin thoughtfully.

“You sure? I'm not a professional or anything.”

“Sure I’m sure, this looks hella awesome; it'd be cool as fuck to have somethin' like it on my wall,” Roxy fished out her phone and waved it at Casey. “Mind if I take some pictures? I wanna show my friends we got an artist in the family 'sides Dave now.”

“Go ahead.”

“Cool,” Roxy rapidly snapped pictures of Casey's mural, and then sent them to her friends.

“So what kinda art does Dave do? I use spray paint an' sketch books,” Casey asked as he started popping the lids back onto the paint cans.

“Digital art mostly, though he doodles on everything in sharpie if you’re not watching," Roxy replied. Then, as an afterthought, "Photography too, I think. But he hasn't been doing that much lately." She knelt down next to Casey, lifting up one of the spray paints. “You want any help cleaning up?”

“Sure, thanks,” Casey handed her the red cap for the can she held. Roxy helped him put all of the supplies back into the boxes, and fold the sheets back into squares to stack. He opened the doors leading onto the balcony all the way and left the room to air out; Casey had slept in some hostile conditions, but paint fumes would make even him sick.

He'd already sent pictures of the mural to his friends before Roxy came in, and his phone was filled with chattering texts. Mostly compliments on the nice work and some run downs of what was happening in New York. Still all quiet with the Foot Clan, and the Kraang; the only disturbances the turtles had had to deal with were from errant Purple Dragon goons trying for bits of the Kraang's turf. Hearing from Raph about the mini skirmishes they'd put down made Casey's fingers itch; he hadn't had a decent work out in days, and not a single fight. A nice break at first, but it was really starting to bug him.

Having your life be a non-stop roller-coaster for two something years and then suddenly peace and quiet? The change had left Casey feeling aimless and twitchy. He liked the fighting, loved it even; excluding all the times they almost died of course. But other than that? It was best part of his life. It felt good to put the bad guys down, to get covered in bruises and blood from doing what was right. You'd think with his background he wouldn't fight ever if possible, but Casey's nature didn't work like that.

It was too late in the night to anything about his pent up energy, so he ended up playing with Noel and Roxy until aunt Roxane called lights out. The tank his cousin and sister could shoot high velocity ping-pong balls from a long paper towel roll, two of which got him right in the face. When Rose came home, just before aunt Roxane shooed them off to bed, the three of them had assaulted the girl with a ping-pong apocalypse from the second floor. Where Roxy got that many ping-pong balls, he didn't know; but Rose's disgruntled, if amused, face was perfect as she tried and failed to knock all of the little white orbs away from her.

When they'd all been banished to their rooms, Casey spent the next few hours texting his five closest friends until April had to sleep, and the turtles had patrol.

 

 

 

In the weeks following their arrival, Casey managed to set up a routine to keep himself occupied.

He woke up around ten every morning, went for a long run, and had lunch with whoever was in the house that day. His afternoons were either exercise in his room, playing with Noel, or doing whatever his aunt had come up with that day.

There were days that didn't follow that script, like trips to the mall a town over or family outings for hikes, but most kept to that skeleton of a routine. Mostly, he was trying to preoccupy himself enough that he didn't miss his friends too much. Casey would laugh sometimes at a TV program, or a good game kill, and expect to hear one of them answer his laughter. He'd turn his head to ask a question and find no one beside him, and feel stupid all over again.

He told himself over and over that it had been only two weeks; he shouldn't be missing them so much. Didn't stop him from keeping late night hours to talk as much as he could with them; he texted all of them and phoned one or two of his friends every day. He listened to what news they had, what brother had said what, and who was fighting with who that day. When they asked what was happening with him, he'd always reply _“Nothing much”_ , because there really was nothing much interesting here.

The brand new laptop that had appeared on his desk one morning, on his fourth day there, had made things easier at least. Nothing like drowning yourself in YouTube to ignore how freaking bored you are. He'd made sure to thank aunt Roxane three times over for that.

She'd told him then that in just a bit, school would be starting for him again; she'd timed it so he and Noel would start the same time kids in the area came off spring break. When the third week started, he went back to school.

The high school in town only had a couple hundred kids’ tops, and everyone knew everyone already. Plus, they were a ways into the curriculum; he would have spent the rest of the year playing catch up if his aunt hadn't pulled some strings. They instead counted all the work he'd down in his old school, and used that as the starting point for his work.

Casey still didn't really get what they were teaching, but he tried to. With the lack of things to do out in this back country town, he was almost excited to have homework again. At least that was a challenge, something to keep himself busy.

When he'd gotten it, and looked at the sprawling numbers and the three inch thick text books, he'd done what he always did with homework; avoided it until it was due the day before.

He was on the phone with April when she asked how he was doing in his new school.

 _“Have you had any trouble with your homework?”_ She asked him. He had the phone cradled between his shoulder and ear as he worked on a new idea for his walls.

“Nah, piece of cake,” He replied as he drew another line to the sketch.

_“You didn't do it, did you?”_

“I don't even know where my books are,” Casey laughed as April sighed over the phone. His avoidance of homework lasted until the school phoned his aunt and he'd gotten a firm stare/finger waggle; but she sat him down at the dining table and helped him out right afterwards. His aunt, while it was awkward for him to ask for help with his homework, turned out to be an excellent tutor. She made things a lot easier to understand, and didn't try to rush him.

His marks went up above sixty percent for the first time since middle school.

Casey met a couple relatively nice kids in town, but none of them really clicked with him. After all the things he'd seen and done, they almost seemed bland to him. Over exposure to mutants, he guessed; now normal people were even more boring than they used to be.

He stuck to texting his five friends in New York, accepting the fact that he wasn't going to have any real ties here.

But, oddly enough, he met some people who were more his speed as one by one, Rose’s friends appeared in the house.

The first one he met properly was John, who almost got him with a joy buzzer; Casey wore his gloves almost all the time, so the shock didn't get through to his palm. Despite being slightly put out that his prank didn't work, John seemed like a nice guy. Casey had played against him in a round of field hockey outside the house, since John had some time to kill before Rose came out of her meditation room.

The guy might've been shorter than Casey, but he was stronger and quicker; Casey only got shots on him because of his better reach and experience with the game. John reminded him a lot of Mikey, with the way he danced through the game and laughed at everything. When they shook hands goodbye, Casey was reminded again of his green friends from the strength of John's grip.

Somehow though, in the time that Casey went to go get the hockey sticks from Noel's room that she was using in a sheet fort, John had left him some surprises inside Casey’s room. All of his clothes were turned inside out, even the ones folded up in his dresser, and the whole room had been reversed. Whatever was on the left or right, was now on the opposite. Casey couldn't even imagine how the guy had done it so quickly; he'd only been gone for five minutes.

He spent the whole afternoon pushing his furniture back to where it had been, and cursing the Egbert name.

The next people he met were Dave and Jade. Casey met Dave as he was coming out of the laundry room from dropping off his clothes; nearly punching the guy in surprise. Dave moved even more like a ninja than his actual ninja friends; Casey hadn't seen or heard the guy until he turned the corner.

Dave was unrepentantly an asshole, hiding behind dark sunglasses and ribbing at Casey the whole conversation. Whenever Casey had tried to give back what he got, Dave would go off on a long winded metaphor in response; making hard for Casey to grab any footing in the conversation for longer than a few seconds. The only reason Casey hadn't snapped at the guy was because he was coming ask if Casey wanted in on a gaming tournament in the living room.

Jade, who was with Rose and Roxy on the couch, was nicer overall than Dave; but made Casey's instincts act up anyways. Maybe it was in how she moved, or the white ears on her head, or maybe how she'd look right into his eyes and smiled with all her teeth as she shook his hand; regardless, something about her made him uneasy.

All of Rose's friends did that to him, and sometimes she and Roxy did too. There was just something about them, and he couldn't put his finger on it. Casey watched them out of the corner of his eyes while they played Street Fighter, noting their behavior towards each other.

Compared to regular teens he's spent a limited amount of time with lately, they're closer to being like his friends. The four kids beside him on the couch and on the floor kept closer to each other than to him, legs and arms bumping against one another.

He remembered how Rose would stiffen up if he entered a room too quietly, or how Roxy would always have a bubble of space around her when she played with Noel. He made comparisons between them and his turtle friends the entire time they play video games, and found a lot more than he would have expected.

Casey was left wondering about the people who've accepted him and his sister into their lives, trying to figure what happened to them to make them act like that.

He never used to be that good at reading body language, but fighting with Shredder lackeys and dealing with aliens in space had schooled him in how to judge someone's reactions. If he can see the move someone will make before they actually do, it'll save him the potential injury and give him the upper hand.

The underlying skittishness his cousins have doesn't extend to their mother, so he doesn't pry. So long as his aunt isn't the one who caused it, he isn't going to stick his nose into things. He's got his secrets, they have theirs; if they ever feel like letting him privy to them, he was all for it.

Unknowingly doing the same as Casey had, Rose observed her cousin's reactions to everyday life in an attempt to divine the source of his wariness.

It could all be from his abusive home, it would not surprise her that his underlying caution came from spending years under the thumb of an angry drunk. But her intuition, and Sight, said otherwise.

Her cousin was dodgy about questions of his friends, talking the most about an April O’Neil. A love interest definitely, but not someone he was currently dating. His talk about the four brothers was vague, never giving too many details on who they were. Sure, he told them plenty about misadventures and sibling rivalry; but nothing concrete. Not even a family name slipped from Casey, just that they were brothers who had a father, and they knew martial arts.

Rose could feel the meeting with these elusive people drawing closer, but it is overshadowed by an enemy's presence. Casey would be in danger before his friends can arrive, and at that time it would only be her and her family standing in the way.

Whoever it was that hunted her cousin, they would not find an easy fight in her home; not while she still lived and breathed.

While she could not break through most of Casey's outer defenses, Noel was more than happy to talk about her life. The little girl was as energetic as Roxy, and loved to rough house just as much as her older brother. She however spent more time with artistry than her brother did, and would often forgo rambunctious play for quietly drawing somewhere in the house. Casey's time used for his spray painting didn't even compare to how often Noel would be drawing.

The difference between the two sides of Noel was startling; Rose would almost forget the girl was there sometimes. Rose figured it out though, why the young girl would hide herself away, the day she dropped a glass bottle of vinegar in the kitchen. She and Noel had been cooking dinner together when it happened, and it had been entirely her fault for not washing the butter off her fingers completely.

As she had been frowning at the shattered bottle and spreading puddle, Noel had disappeared without Rose noticing. Her mother had come in to ask what the noise had been, and they cleaned up the entire mess before Rose realized Noel was gone.

Noel was inside her room when Rose finally found her; curled up in a ball beside her bed with her headphones on, Queen playing loudly in her ears. Rose hadn't even seen the girl until she stepped further into the room; Noel had concealed herself away from easy sight by sitting on the side of the bed that faced away from the door.

When Rose had knelt down to ask Noel to come to dinner, the small girl had flinched away with wide eyes. Noel recovered quickly, and smiled as she said she'd be down in a minute. Rose's heart had felt heavy as she left the room, knowing that there was no way for her to take that instinctive fear from Noel.

After dinner, she quietly told her mother and Roxy to be careful of dropping glass items around Noel. Twice over than before, alcoholic beverages of any kind were banned from the house.

The Jones sibling covered it well, but they both bore trauma from living with their father. Rose, despite her user name and original aspirations, was not a therapist; but she could tell her cousins needed one. But things were still too new between them all, so it was not yet her place to suggest it.

Dropping hints with her mother though, was something she could do.

 

 

 

“I don't need therapy,” Was Casey's reaction to Roxane's question. “I'm fine.”

Roxane briefly shut her eyes and tried to channel all of her parenting skills into this one moment. “I just thought, it might be a good idea to talk things out with someone in the profession.”

Casey hunched his shoulders and glared. “Therapy is for whack jobs. I'm not a whack job.”

“No, therapy is for people who need a little bit of help sorting things out,” Roxane explained calmly. “I've been going to a type of therapy, for alcoholism.” Roxane noted Casey's eyes widening momentarily at that revelation. To be expected, after his experiences. “I'm not proud of that part of my life, but I’ve been working hard to get back to normalcy after addiction. It helps more than you would imagine.”

Casey tapped his fingers against his knee, leaning away from the table. His eyes flickered around the kitchen and dining room, as he said again, “I don't need therapy. I’m fine.”

Roxane sighed softly, folding her hands together in her lap. “Would you please take at least one session? Just to try it.”

Casey's eyes finally flickered back to her, his expression guarded. “You gonna make Noel do it too?”

“I'm not making you do anything, I’m suggesting and hoping you'll agree,” Roxane said. “I promise I’m not going to push you into anything if you refuse, alright? But yes, I’m going to ask your sister too. It could help a lot with your adjustment.”

Roxane watched Casey fidget for a moment longer before responding; he seemed to fidget the most when he was uncomfortable. “I'll do one session. Nothin' more, okay?”

Roxane smiled gently and nodded. “That's all I ask for.”

 

 

 

 

“This is stupid,” Casey muttered under his breath. 

“What was that, mister Jones?” Asked the therapist.

“Nothin',” Casey said louder. He shifted in the weirdly comfortable chair he'd been sat in when he entered the office. The therapist was an older woman with many streaking strands fo grey, her voice was soothing and strong; she'd introduced herself and Susanne Knox. He tugged on the edge of his hoodie in vague frustration. “So when d'you start picking my brain, doc?”

“I don't believe brain picking is a part of my job description,” Susanne replied with a small chuckle as she came over from her desk with a clipboard in hand. “We're just here to get to know each other right now, make a few lists and have a conversation.”

Casey snorted, that wasn't how things went on television. Susanne sat down in the other comfy chair near him; not quite facing him, and there for not boxing Casey in against the wall. Her chair was on his left, and backed against the wall there. Her office wasn't terribly large, but it was roomy enough it didn't feel suffocating. Potted plants basked in the sun coming in through the large window, and two large book shelves with varying titles for psychology lined the walls.

“So, Casey, why don't we get started,” Susanne handed him the clipboard, which had a stack of papers on it. “This is a fill in guidebook, you fill in your answers and it will give me a good idea of where your at.”

Casey flipped through the pages. There were a number of them, but not too many that it would take him forever to fill them in. “And what, you just sit there until I’m done?”

“I can leave the room until you've finished filling things in if it'll make you more comfortable,” Susanne said.

“Uh, yeah, that would be good,” Casey shuffled the papers back into order and took the pen Susanne handed him. When the door clicked shut behind her, he let out a small sigh of relief. He was only here because his aunt had asked him, and this was a onetime thing. When this was over he wouldn't have to do it ever again.

Casey clicked the pen nib and started filling in the blanks. The papers asked him about his family, about his life up to this point, and the like.

 _The best moments of your life:_ Getting involved with the turtles probably, and everything that followed; but he couldn't put that down. Casey settled for writing, _when i met my closest friends, and playing on a real hockey team for the first time._

 _The worst moments of your life:_ Casey wrote down and scribbled out multiple things before he finally wrote out in shaky pen, _when my mom died. when dad started drinking. the invasion of new york._

There were a lot more tame questions other than those, which he filled out easily enough. But a couple dredged up bad memories and made Casey scowl at the papers, like they were responsible for the tangle of emotions in his chest.

Casey scrubbed his hands over his face, he hated talking about this stuff. It was in the past, it didn't matter anymore.

A soft knock on the door drew his attention away from the frustrating papers. Susanne opened the door enough to step in half ways. “Are you done? You don't need to fill out every bit just yet, just the first couple for now.”

Casey nodded and handed the clipboard and papers back to her, he'd gotten just over halfway through the work. Susanne took the clipboard and sat back down in her chair, starting to flip through the pages. Casey shuffled his feet against the carpet, feeling uncomfortably exposed as the therapist looked at some of his deepest memories and feelings.

“Hm, your lists seem to be very short, Casey. Are you sure you don't want to add anything else before we start?”

“Nah thanks,” Casey replied. He picked at a frayed string on his gloves. “It's good like that.”

“Alright then, let's get started. Do you want to begin with the positive experiences, or the negative ones?” Susanne had a small pad of paper in her hand, and another pen in the other. Casey eyed her warily; this was probably where she started asking the hard questions.

“...the positive ones,” Casey said slowly. He didn't want to make this anymore unpleasant for himself than it had to be.

“You've listed two things there, so why don't you tell me about the one that means the most to you?”

Casey focused on the plants by the window, not wanting to look at Susanne's face while he talked. “I met April and the guys about two years ago, 'cause I needed help studying an' April got stuck with me as an extracurricular project. April was, uh, havin' some trouble with the thugs in her neighborhood and the guys were helping her out. I got to meet them because of an accident.”

“And who are these boys you've become friends with?”

“They're these four brothers that live near April's,” Casey bit his lip, trying to figure out how to talk about the turtles without blowing their cover. Or sounding crazy. “I ran into them 'cause I tried to do the same thing they were, which was keepin' some shithea- these guys off of April's back. We fought a lot in the beginning, but now they're my, uh, best friends.” Casey felt really awkward talking about the brothers so mushy like, even if they'd never hear anything he said about them.

Susanne jotted down a couple things before talking again. “Can you tell me about your friends? Their ages, their home life, what do they like to do?”

Casey rubbed his thumb over his left knuckles as he thought. “Well, they're all technically the same age, but they still got the eldest to youngest thing going on. Leo's the oldest, then it's Raph and Donnie, an' then Mikey on the end. They live with their dad, who's a martial arts teacher by the way, and they do... normal teen things. Fighting, gaming, sneakin' out at night. I spend a lot of time with them doin' that stuff.” Casey frowned slightly. “Or I did, before I moved.”

“And April, where does she fit into your group?”

“She's... she's April. She's got the best head on her shoulders, and tries to keep us from doin' anything too stupid,” Casey leaned back and stuck his hands inside his jacket's pockets, feeling the textured casing of the T-phone. “She's just as much my best friend as the guys are, even if she's not really into the same stuff as I am.”

“You all sound very close,” Susanne said as she wrote a couple more bullet points on her notes. “Have you been missing them since you moved here?”

“Course I have,” Casey scoffed. “Spend two years getting in each other’s faces an' then nothin'? It's really weird not to have 'em around anymore.”

“Do you talk with them often?”

“Every day. I was texting with them on the way over,” Casey fingered the plastic turtle shell of his phone, remembering quick pep talk with April on the way over. So he'd been a little nervous, nothing big.

“That's good to hear, close friends are very important to your mental health,” Susanne clicked her pen again and set it down on her lap. She leaned forwards, the light of the office glinting slightly on her glasses. “Now, would it be okay if we tried one of the negative topics? Nothing too serious, just some brushing of the topic to get to know them. Your guardian gave me your file when she registered you here, so I’d like you try talking about your experiences at home. Is that okay?”

Casey tightened his hold on his phone. “I'd... really rather not.”

“I know, but that's why your here, to talk things over. We don't have to talk about it too long, but before you leave it would be good to.”

Casey looked up at Susanne, who was looking at him with a gentle expression; her whole posture was nonthreatening, making him relax ever so slightly. “...just a little bit, 'kay? I don't like talking about that stuff.”

“When something is difficult to talk about, it usually means you need to talk about it the most,” Susanne said softly.

Casey ran his fingers along the sides of his phone and nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

It felt like Casey was pulling knots to talk about his former home life; but Susanne's calm voice let him keep answering the questions. She asked him when his father had started drinking, _(“Right after mom died.”)_ , and when the abuse had begun. _(“I was thirteen, and he'd had a bad day at work.”)_

Did his father ever hurt Noel? _(“No, never touched her. Just me.”)_ Did he ever fight back? _(“One time. Just made it worse.”)_ Did he ever ask for help? _(“I... I didn't know there_ was _help until I was 'bout fifteen. But I couldn't call 'em. I didn't wanna break up the family any more.”)_

“Can we stop?” Casey asked quietly, after the last question. He felt wrung out, like he'd sprinted around the rink without stopping. “I don't wanna talk about this anymore.”

“Alright, we can stop. How about talking about your first hockey team instead?”

 

 

 

When Casey finally got back to the house, he didn't acknowledge his aunt's questions about a movie night.

He retreated as quick as possible to his room, throwing his clothes off and climbing into bed with just his boxers. His head felt like someone put a mixer into it and turned it onto turbo; for once in his life everything was too loud , too overwhelming. Casey hadn't ever felt that off kilter before, not even during the trial for his dad.

He pulled his pillow down from the head of his bed, and against his chest under the covers. It didn't smell like home anymore; it'd stopped smelling like that a week ago. Everything smelt like soap and fresh air, throwing him further off.

Casey only emerged from his blankets long enough to grab his T-phone from the bed side table, pulling it under as well. He had two concerned messages, one from April asking about his appointment, and one from Raph demanding why he hasn't checked in that evening. Casey laughed softly, reading Raph's gruff message. He texted a quick _'i_ _m fine asshole stop worrying'_ to Raph and didn't answer April's. He didn't want to think about the therapist anymore, he was tired of thinking of his past.

He shut the screen off and dropped it back onto his table. He didn't feel up to interacting with his friends. He instead grabbed his old phone and ear buds, shoving them into his ears and shutting his eyes. If he didn't think about what he talked about today, then it never happened as far as he's concerned.

He fell asleep without meaning to.

Casey didn't dream anything coherent, just flashing images and emotions. It's enough though, to count as a nightmare. Bites of sounds that he remembered played in his ears, his dad's angry voice and Noel's crying. He caught flickers of their old apartment, which looks darker and even smaller than it had in real life. He felt phantom blows landing on his chest and arms; remembering the moments when he got those bruises.

 

He briefly saw his mother, pale and shrunken in her hospital bed with his too tall to be real father looming over him from behind, before he's startled awake by a particularly loud guitar riff. Casey ripped the ear buds out and tried to control his breathing.

He was covered in sweat, the blankets he fell asleep under having trapped all of his exhaled breaths. He kicked the blankets off him and rolled onto his back. It was dark in his room, the sun long gone. Eleven at night was what his alarm clock read. Casey rubbed a hand over his face, and sighed loudly. It wasn't like he needed to get up tomorrow anyways; it was Friday, so he'd sleep in to recover.

Casey sat up and looked around his room, his clothes thrown around the floor and various paintings on the walls; in the dark, it resembled his old room. He let his legs drop onto the floor, and reached for his discarded jeans to get dressed. Once he pulled them up, he walked over to his sliding door to step outside.

The sky was clear, and a half full moon high in the air. The sounds of forest life washed over Casey, joining the cool breeze that was giving him goose bumps and drying the sweat on his skin. Without his bandanna holding it down, his longish black hair flew around his face in the up draft from the cliff side.

Casey sighed, and leaned his head on his hands; pushing sleepseed off his eyelids. He'd slept at least six hours, but he didn't feel rested at all. Just hungry, and his stomach rumbled in agreement with that thought.

He stopped only to grab his discarded band t-shirt, before leaving his room to go look for leftovers from dinner. If his aunt was still wandering around, he'd apologize for his behavior earlier. The house was dark and silent, Noel's door closed as he walked by it for the stairs. With any luck, he wouldn't have to talk to anyone before he heads back to his room.

As he walked down the cold steps, he heard sounds coming from the kitchen. Damn, and he'd been hoping he was alone. Casey padded towards the kitchen, seeing the faint light coming from the dining room inside. He stepped into the room, and saw his cousin Rose sitting at the table with Noel.

Noel spotted him first, smiling happily at him. “Casey! I saved you some dinner, it's in the fridge.”

Casey nodded, heading for the large refrigerator on the kitchen side of the room. His plate of food is indeed inside it, wrapped in plastic; it's mashed potatoes... and spaghetti. Odd combo, so it must have been Roxy's turn to cook.

He took off the plastic and brought the plate over the microwave, heating it for a minute and a half before going to sit at the table with the two girls. Rose has a cup of tea in her hands, and Noel does too. Rose smiled at him, curling her hands further around her warm mug. “So, how was your day, Casey?”

“S'fine,” Casey replied shortly. Noel poked him in the side, reminding him to be polite. He glared at her, and bit out a longer answer. “Fine, if you’re wondering 'bout my appointment, it was great. I just love talking about my feelings with strangers. Ow!” Casey (gently) slapped Noel's hand away. “Quit poking me.”

Noel stuck her tongue out at him. “Then stop being grouchy! I went to one too you know, an' I’m not being pissy about it!”

“Hey,” Casey leveled a finger at his sister. “You not allowed to say that until you’re a teenager.”

“Well you _are_ ,” Noel said, leaning out of Casey's nose flicking range.

“I got excuse to be.”

“That's not what you tell me when I’m being grouchy,” Noel protested.

Casey grunted and shoved a spoon full of mashed potatoes into his mouth; ignoring Noel and Rose's looks. Couldn't a guy eat in peace without being tag teamed? “Look, I already spent the whole evening talking about stuff I don't wanna talk about. Don't make me do it anymore.”

Rose raised her free hand to show she was backing off. “I didn't mean to antagonize you, Casey. I was just curious how you were doing. You weren't at dinner this evening.”

“Wasn't hungry then,” Casey said, swallowing another bite of his meal. “Can we talk about somethin' other than me? I’m not in a sharing mood.”

“Alright, then perhaps you might like to discuss the possibility of a sleepover with my friend group soon?” Rose took a sip of her tea before continuing. “I've been meaning to introduce you to Roxy's half of the group, and she thinks that a slumber party would be 'totes a fab way to mingle'.”

Casey swallows the last bit of his potatoes before he answered. “That'd be cool. They gonna be nice as Dave was?”

“I apologize for my brother's behavior, he is wary of new people we bring into our circle,” Rose took another sip of her tea, like she hadn't just dropped an info bomb on Casey.

“Dave's your brother?” Casey asked incredulously. “How come this never came up before?”

“It was never applicable to the situation,” Rose responded blithely. “He, and his older brother Dirk, are indeed related to myself and Roxy; but our family's parents are separated as much as possible. Something along the lines of our father not only being very much gay, but also being a poor parental figure in general. We don't talk with him.”

Casey looked over at Noel, who was looking at him as well. Bit of a surprise, considering they'd thought the Lalondes were their only living relations. “Do Dave and Dirk still live the guy?”

“No, not anymore. Dirk lives with the Harley-English’s, and Dave tends to flit between the collective houses of our group,” Rose set her empty mug down onto the table. “Once Dave has warmed up to you, you might find you have more in common than you think. Please put up with his deflective front until then.”

“I won't punch the guy, probably. That's as much as I can promise,” Casey slurped up the last bite of noodles and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, not catching Rose's mildly disgusted face. “So the sleepover thing, when would that be?”

“Perhaps next weekend? All of our schedules align on that Saturday,” Rose suggested.

“Sounds good to me, if Noel can join in,” Casey poked his sister on her shoulder, and she slapped his hand away. “Wouldn't be all that fair to exclude her from a get together like that.”

“No, it would not be. I'll see that the movie selection is rated G exclusively,” Rose chuckled lightly. “It won't be much of a change, our group tends to drift in that direction of cinema already.”

“Great, set the date then,” Casey agreed. Talking about sleepovers was easy, talking about anything other than the appointment was easy. Now he just needed to tell his aunt he was never going ever again, and it would be perfectly wrapped up.

 

 

 

Leo winced as his tech genius brother hissed in frustration, another part of the ship malfunctioning.

He was standing on some scaffolding, holding a portion of the wing up; Raph on the other side also supporting. His younger brother had come up with the idea to replace bits of the inside wiring with sturdier types from earth; Kraang technology was built with materials from at least two centuries ahead of earth, but it wasn't as tough as what humans had already. But once Donnie had removed the wiring, he'd been met with a fail safe protocol to ward off scavengers. It blew up half the wing's systems, making the process all the more difficult to complete. Leo's brother might have been pissed as hell, but it was a good thing they'd discovered the problem still in the hanger, and not in the air.

Donnie clicked loudly at Mikey, who passed him another length of wiring to replace whatever had blown up that time. Leo would have told them to stop if the explosions weren't so small; the worst they'd get were paper cuts and splinter like shards. Besides, Donnie had gloves and an apron on; that plus his goggles, Leo knew his brother would be fine.

“Can you hurry up Don? My arms are sore,” Raph complained, shifting his grip on the wing.

Donnie hissed softly under his breath as he applied the new wiring. “Just a minute more Raph, I’ve almost got it in right, then we can weld it all back into place.”

Leo’s arms were beginning to feel the strain too; they might have enhanced strength, but a plane wing thrice their size was pushing it. Raph grumbled under his breath, but kept holding the wing in place. Donnie asked Mikey for another two spools of wiring and to hold things in place, and then sat back and sighed; pushing his goggles off his eyes. “There, that should do it. Get ready to put it back together.”

“Don’t take too long Donnie,” Leo warned. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this steady.”

“I know, I know,” Donnie muttered as he hopped off the ship with Mikey. He went and grabbed his welding equipment from the far end of the platform, while Mikey got into position with his older brothers to help lift. Donnie slung the mobile welding pack onto his shell and climbed back onto the ship. He got right in the center, and then gestured for them to lift.

Leo heaved, along with Raph and Mikey, and pushed the wing back against the rest of the ship. Donnie told them to stop when things lined up enough for him to start welding.

“So when d’you think we can go visit Casey?” Mikey piped up, when Donnie had welded most of the wing back together.

“I don’t know about that Mikey,” Leo said, doubtful of the idea. “I don’t think Sensei would let us go that far from the city.”

“Oh come on Leo, we have a space ship now; we could be there and back before the night was even over,” Raph countered. “And besides, we spent the last half a year making choices without Sensei; why do we gotta start again now?”

“Because he’s our Sensei, and we’re supposed to listen to him,” Leo replied, used to Raph’s arguing on the topic after a month plus of small fights.

“Plus, most of those choices were bad ones,” Donnie added, leaning over the lip of the wing to look at them through his goggles. “But I do agree with Raph, for once. I haven’t been able to get back into the habit of asking Sensei for permission for everything. I’m not used to it anymore.”

“None of us are, bro,” Mikey said, nodding along. “It’s super weird to have a dad again. I mean it’s great, an’ I love him a ton, but I forgot how many rules he’s got.”

Leo frowned at his brothers, they didn’t seem very grateful to have their father back. But… “I guess you do have a point,” Leo’s expression fell ever so slightly. “I’m used to being the only one in charge, without having to run my ideas by anyone.”

“Um, that’s probably not a good thing Leo,” Donnie said, pushing his goggles away so he could meet Leo’s eyes. “A leader’s supposed to tell his team the plan before enacting it. That was one of the first things Sensei taught us.”

Leo rankled under Donnie’s comment. What did his brother know about leading? “Regardless if we want to or not, we can’t go flying off the visit Casey. He’s living with people who don’t know us, and it would be too risky to try and meet him there.”

“C’mon Leo, pleeease?” Mikey whined, shooting him a pleading look. “I’m missin’ our other human something harsh, bro. It’s not the same without him around!”

“It’d just be a quick visit, we could be back before Sensei even knew we were gone,” Raph said, trying to appeal with words for once. “An’ if no one squealed, he’d never know a thing about it.”

Donnie swung under the wing, attached to a cable around his waist, and paused in his welding to look at his brothers. “I can promise you Leo, that our ship wouldn’t be seen for even a second; I’ve got all the stealth functions online. It wouldn’t hurt anyone if we went to see Casey for one night.”

Leo grimaced, feeling pressured. His brothers were making good points, and a quick space flight sounded really appealing after spending a whole month stuck with the same sights and sounds as always. Space had made him too comfortable with new things, adventures every day and endless planets to visit. New York felt almost stifling in comparison now, the shadows no longer quite as satisfying.

“…you’re sure we wouldn’t get caught?” Leo asked.

“Positively,” Donnie replied, grinning upside down at him.

Leo sighed, and shook his head. “One night, and it has to be short.”

Mikey whooped and Raph grinned widely at him. Donnie gave him a thumbs up and went back to finishing the wing’s repairs. Leo rolled his eyes at his brother’s excited chatter, and hoped he wouldn’t regret letting the idea take literal and metaphorical flight.

 

 

 

(Inside the ship, deep inside the chamber walls where the brothers hadn’t bothered to search; a row of glass tubes bubbled softly. Inside floated pink aliens, asleep in comas. They were reserve soldiers that had been in transport when the brothers seized the ship; on their way back to Dimension X.

Their nutrient supply was running low and it was only a matter of days until they woke up again. The fail-safe codes to end their life in the event of a hostile takeover of the ship had been deleted by the hyper intelligent middle child of the four; now they were waiting to awaken and escape.

The four brothers stood outside the ship discussing flight plans, completely unaware of the dangers inside of their stolen ship.)

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On a not quite unrelated note, I'm making not only a playlist for my dumb crossover, but also figuring out the God Tiers for everyone. I've got the turtles down, just gotta do the humans.
> 
> I do nothing halfway, it's all or nothing.


	4. Act 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LIVE.
> 
> WITH THE SUDDEN RESURGENCE OF THE HOMESTUCK FANDOM, I WAS GIVEN INSPIRATION TO BRING THIS BACK FROM THE GRAVE.
> 
> SORRY FOR DISAPPEARING, I BRING YOU THIS CHAPTER AS AN APOLOGY.

 

 

Casey’s snapped open, and his arms tangled in his sheets as he tried to block something that wasn’t there. A beat, and he went limp again; catching his breath as though he’d been sprinting.

Were the nightmares ever going to stop? They were getting really annoying. A solid night’s sleep was all he wanted, and he couldn’t even get half of one.

Casey turned his head, checking the time on the clock. Fuck, wasn’t even three AM yet. He’d be dead on his feet at school tomorrow if he didn’t fall back asleep right away. Which, judging from the hazy mix of fear and anger still floating in his head, wouldn’t be happening.

Well. He’d picked up a packet of energy drinks from the in town Walmart; maybe he could just get up now and stay awake all day.

Noel might scold him for drinking so many.

Mm, still worth it. He wasn’t going back to sleep, not with his dream clinging to his thoughts like that.

Casey kicked off his blankets, and dragged himself out of bed.

The dark hallways of the mansion were silent as he padded through them, the only sound coming from his bare feet slapping on the marble of the grand staircase. Casey rubbed absently at his eye sockets, getting rid of the sleep seed still clinging to his eyelids.

As he reached the last steps, he heard something on the edge of his hearing. Casey turned his head towards the living room, and spotted flashing light coming from further inside.

Casey walked around the corner, into the room, and looked around for the source. The television was on, playing an old Scooby Doo movie that Casey couldn’t place. Its soft volume barely made noise, the muted voices of the characters on screen sounding like they were far away.

Rose was lying on the couch.

“You’re welcome to join,” She spoke suddenly, making Casey jump a bit. Rose sat up, drawing her legs onto one half of the couch. “A pity party is better with company, after all.”

Casey hesitated for a moment, wavering on whether he wanted privacy or company; eventually though, he decided he’d rather some company. Easier to think about present conversation than what happened in his head.

Casey walked around the back of the couch, and flopped down on the left side. Rose turned up the volume of the television, and settled her legs underneath her nightgown’s hem.

Watching the cartoon play across screen, Casey asked, “How come you’re watchin’ a kid’s movie at three AM?”

“My mother insisted on keeping every insipid child’s film I ever perused,” Rose replied smoothly. “It’s really quite a collection now. Also, nightmares.”

“Ah…” Casey said, glancing cautiously over at his cousin. Did she need him to…? “D’you wanna… I dunno, talk about it?”

Rose snorted, reaching to the coffee table and picking up her drink. “No more than you want to talk about yours.”

Casey eyed the glass she took a sip from, looking at the brown-yellow contents. “ ’s that a midnight drink you got there?”

“Apple juice,” Rose said, setting the drink back down. “Dave is obsessed with the drink; we’ve always got some in the cupboard somewhere.”

“Oh.” Casey said, relaxing again. Not beer or alcohol of any kind then. Good.

The knowing smile that Rose gave him made Casey internally grimace; sometimes it felt like she was reading his mind. Creepy.

His eyes drifted back to the screen in front of them, and as the characters spoke more, he placed the movie with his memories of watching children friendly TV.

“This is the alien invaders one, right?”

“Yes. It’s become a bit of a favorite… of… mine…” Rose said, trailing off as the female character on screen was introduced, the one that would turn out to be an alien later on.

Casey didn’t comment, keeping quiet as Rose focused in on the screen.

Well, it wasn’t like he’d come down here expecting conversation anyways.

Casey settled against the cushions, and propped his feet up on the coffee table. If Rose thought it was inappropriate to put his feet on an eating surface, she didn’t say so.

They got halfway through the movie, hitting the rising action for the climax, before Rose spoke again.

“You know, you _can_ talk to us,” She said, pulling Casey out of his half-doze. Casey turned his head, meeting his cousin’s violet eyes in the gloom of the living room. She tilted her head slightly, and Casey felt like she was looking at more than just him. “If you won’t talk to a therapist, then confiding in your family would be the next best thing. Though I am not the best at comforting individuals, I’m sure we could find some… common ground to sympathize upon instead.”

Casey stared at her, trying to pick a response.

 _“It’s not your business”, “I really doubt you’d understand”,_ and “ _I can’t tell anyone about the things I’ve seen”_ floated through his mind as options.

He didn’t say anything.

Rose nodded, like that answered her offer, and turned back to the television. “The offer is always open, just so you know that.”

Casey stared at her a moment longer, then grunted and turned back to the movie as well.

It was nice of Rose to offer, but no offense to her or their family, no one here was going to understand the shit Casey had bottled up in him. The only people who could were all the way back in New York, and they didn’t even need to talk about it. His friends, the brothers and April, they all already knew what Casey would have to talk about.

Maybe not about the… abuse with his dad, but Casey didn’t want to talk about that anyways.

Rose didn’t talk again, and neither did Casey.

He fell asleep on the couch, listening to Shaggy profess his love to the alien woman on screen.

Rose didn’t mention the things she’d said next morning, and Casey didn’t bring them up.

 

 

 

“How close are you to be dooooooone,” Mikey whined, flopping onto Donnie’s shell as his brother bent over. “It’s been days, and you’re _still_ workin’ on those stupid wires? I wanna go see Casey already, and you’re taking _forever_.”

“Go away Mikey,” Donnie muttered, trying to dislodge Mikey while he pulled out another circuitry board. Mikey blew a raspberry, and clutched his arms a bit harder around Donnie’s neck.

“ _Doooooniiiiiiiiie.”_

“I’m working as fast as I can, Mikey, but there’s a malfunction somewhere in the wiring and I can’t find it. We’re not flying anywhere until I locate it, and fix it.”

“Uuuuugh, what’s one stupid malfunction gonna do?”

“Destabilize us in midair, and keep causing everything else to short circuit.”

“ _Uuuuugh,”_ Mikey grumbled, sliding off Donnie’s shoulders to flop on the floor. “This sounded like a lot more fun before you made it into _work_.”

“You’re welcome to leave,” Donnie replied, replacing the slide of technology back wherever he’d pulled it from.

Mikey thought about that for moment, but decided to not. “Nah. Raph and Leo are fighting again.”

Donnie hummed sympathetically, pulled out a screw driver and starting at a new panel in the controls. “What about this time?”

“Iunno, I couldn’t even tell. Chompy maybe?”

“I really need to sit down with Raph, and have a discussion about just how big his ‘pet’ is going to get,” Donnie mumbled absently. Then he yelped, jerking his hands away from the sparking panel. “Oh for chrisake- _why won’t you work?”_

Mikey rolled his eyes as his brother hissed at the Kraang technology.

He could’ve stayed home with Ice Cream kitty, caught up on some television shows with her, but his two eldest siblings cursing each other out in the dojo had made that unappealing. Plus! _Someone_ had to come with Donnie, make sure he didn’t get hurt all on his lonesome in the warehouse.

Mikey hummed the tune to _Space Heroes_ ’ opening under his breath, watching from the cold metal floor as Donnie fiddled with the control panels.

“Any luck?”

“I may murder this very advance piece of technology before the evening is out.”

“Hm. I see.”

“Did you at least bring me a lunch with you?”

“Yee, got Raph’s whole stash of Orange Crush from under his bed.”

“I don’t think carbonated drinks count as lunch, and he may turn you into a green smear for that.”

“Ha, totally worth it. ‘sides, maybe he’ll think Chompy did it if we tear up the cans enough and shove ‘em back under his bed.”

“He _might_ … he is very soft with his pets after all…”

“I’ll go get ‘em, I left the pack on your big tool stand outside.”

“Bring me my soldering iron while you’re at it.”

“Gotcha, Doctor Dee,” Mikey chirped, hopping off the floor. “Oh, and I got samiches too.”

“Not a real word, but thanks none the less,” Donnie replied without looking away from his work. Mikey flicked his brother’s skull with one finger before he left, and snickered as Donnie’s scolding followed him out.

 

 

 

A week before the big sleepover, Casey started helping with preparations. With the size of the group that was coming, there ended up being a long list of things to do.

Shopping, for one thing, turned out of to be a heck of a chore; though a very fun one. Racing down the aisles, Noel sitting in the shopping cart like a tiny dare devil pilot, and snatching whatever caught their eyes as they passed; it got them in trouble, but a quick flash of Aunt Roxane’s credit cards and their huge purchase of snacks got them back out of it.

Laundry though, to clean up all their rooms and empty the bins in the laundry room; that was less fun, even with Noel’s chipper attitude about getting the work done. Casey might’ve accidentally touched his cousin’s underwear. Specifically, Roxy’s underwear. Roxy’s _dirty_ underwear.

Noel punched him in the gut for making a big deal about it, saying it was no different than accidentally touching _her_ underwear, and Casey commented that he didn’t exactly want to be touching _hers_ either.

Without him noticing, Roxy snuck into the room at some point during their massive laundry fight, and took a video of Casey losing to his little sister as they wrestled on the floor.

He asked for a copy later on.

“For when she’s all grown up and starts acting like a bratty teenager,” He explained, saving the video into his phone.

Roxy giggled, her curled hair bouncing as she did. “Oooh, _blackmail_. I have a bunch of that for Rose and our friends. Ohmygod, I _have_ to show you this video- this one time, Dave took a dare that he could chug a four litre of apple juice and he basically _died_.”

“Now _that_ sounds like quality entertainment.”

Other than the laundering, there was a lot of vacuuming, and dusting, and general tidying. Casey whined at one point that as far as he knew, the people coming over weren’t going to _care_ that the house was messy.

“My house, my rules,” Roxanne said, pushing another set of dusters into his hands. “Now go dust the top of the pantry cupboards, I think something gained sentience there last week.”

Casey grumbled, and dodged around Noel as she sped by; her skinny little arms pushing a thick washcloth across the linoleum to wash the dirt away.

 

 

 

“I’m really sorry guys, but I can’t tag along this time,” April said, flipping the page of her textbook and picking back up her pencil. “I’m totally swamped by midterms right now, and I can’t afford to go off on ninja adventures for another two weeks at least.”

 _“Aw what?”_ Mikey’s voice exclaimed through April’s phone. _“That’s totally bogus!”_

 _“Please stop using outdated slang Mikey, it’s actually painful,”_ Donnie commented somewhere in the background of the call. _“And we completely understand, April. I’ll give Casey your best when we see him.”_

April idly tapped in a series of equations into her calculator, and frowned when none of the numbers on the multiple choice sheet matched the results. She tried again, listening to the sound of scuffling and grunts on the other end of her mobile. After a few more seconds of grumbling, Raph’s voice came over the line. _“You sure you can’t take one night off? It’s more fun when we got you and not just my brothers in an enclosed space.”_

“As appealing as that sounds, I think I’ll stay behind,” April chuckled.

 _“Raph, it’s_ my phone _give it_ back-” Donnie started to say, but a very loud _“DOG PILE!!”_ from Mikey cut him off. April took the phone away from her ear, the speaker transmitting nothing but static and shouting now.

“I think I’ll call back later. Talk to you all tomorrow?”

 _“That- ack, Raph that’s my_ spleen _\- that might be a good idea,”_ Donnie’s strained voice said.

“Bye Donnie, Raph, Mikey.”

 _“BYE APRIL!”_ Mikey hollered into the receiver, over Raph and Donnie’s grunted goodbyes.

April tapped the ‘end call’ button, and set her phone face down on her desk. Stretching her arms above her head before starting again, April dove back into homework she was just barely keeping up with. 

 

 

 

“I don’t see how this is helping me get ready for the sleepover,” Casey said in a bored tone, wincing as his hair was pulled again. “It’s not even until this weekend, Noel, and that’s a whole five days away still.”

“Shhhhhhh,” Noel hissed, tugging Casey’s hair as she braided the strands together. “I’m making you pretty, so sit still and let me.”

“The left one’s lopsided,” Casey commented, ignoring the slight pain his sister caused with her tugging.

“Well _you_ keep moving, so o’ course it’s gonna be lopsided.”

“Noeeeeeel…”

“Shh, no moving. ‘m almost done.”

Casey sighed, but stopped his fidgeting regardless. He wasn’t entirely sure how Noel always roped him into this sort of thing, but once again, he was sitting in front of a vanity while his little sister played with his hair.

“How many braids you plannin’ on making? I’m counting three little ones right now.”

“Twelve,” Noel replied blithely, putting an elastic on the one she’d just finished.

“Of course,” Casey grumbled. He didn’t make any efforts to get away though, letting Noel have her way with his hair. As Noel started on the fourth braid, Casey spoke again. “Use a sparkly elastic this time. Brings out my eyes.”

“Ooh, yessss…”

Their Aunt snapped a lot of pictures when Casey came down for dinner that evening, immortalizing his twelve mini-braid hairstyle forever.

“I’m getting these printed and framed for Christmas, and you’re getting one for your desk, Casey,” Aunt Roxanne said as she typed away on her phone. “Now pose with your sister and lemme get another couple.”

Casey, having resigned himself to the situation hours ago, shrugged and did as told. He’d put a similar hairstyle into Noel’s hair, so they matched in the photos.

Privately, he felt pretty good; getting to bond with his little sister in ways he’d regretted not doing more, thinking about them often while he was away in space.

He grinned for the photos; his missing top teeth matching Noel’s missing bottom ones.

 

 

 

“No, it’s not gonna be named that, _we already decided it ain’t gonna be named somethin’ so prissy-”_

“-do not get to dictate what we name the ship, Raph, and I’m the leader, my vote should count more than yours when it comes to something we’re all going to be using-”

“-the hell kind of backwards logic is that, JUST ‘CAUSE YOU’RE LEADER DOESN’T MEAN YOU GET TO DO THAT SORTA THING-”

“-guys guys GUYS, you’re both suggesting really awful names, just leave it to the professionals, like _come on-_ they’re both super lame like are you even _trying-”_

 _“-SHUT UP, MIKEY,”_ Both of the elder siblings yelled together, restarting the cycle of their insipid arguing.

Donnie watched dispassionately as his brothers squabbled, their voices echoing off the walls of their warehouse. He wasn’t even really listening anymore; he’d heard the same argument over and over since they got the ship.

 Said ship _still_ didn’t work right, something inside the deeper circuitry malfunctioning every time he tried to start it up for flight. To meet the deadline, along with all his other duties for lair and weapons upkeep, Donnie had forgone sleeping until he fixed the problem.

Donnie listened to his brothers fight for a moment longer, then finished pouring his five-hour-energy drink into his big travel mug; mixing the high energy liquid with the black coffee already in there.

The shouting turned into physical blows, and Donnie tipped his toxic drink back and chugged half the cup.

God he hated his family sometimes.

 

 

 

“You doing alright?”

Rose turned her head, her _aching_ head, and looked over towards the door of her meditation room. Roxy leaned in the doorway, a sympathetic smile on her lips. “You’ve been getting those headaches again, right?”

Rose sighed, and stepped away from the window she’d been looking out. “Yes, the general cosmic alignment has been a true burden on my psyche lately. I also think it may be the low pressure system sweeping in.”

“Hmmm… poor you,” Roxy said as she crossed the room. Rose felt the atmosphere shift around her as Roxy approached, the pressure of the air suddenly vanishing. “You want me to give you some headspace for a bit? It worked pretty well the last time we tried it.”

Rose hummed thoughtfully, enjoying the sudden alleviation of her sensitivities. Being a Seer could be a hassle occasionally, especially since her Aspect clashed so violently with the… extra powers she had.

The Light that dwelled within her mind’s eye, it would sting when her residual furthest ring influences brushed too close. The only way to find peace from the constant migraines when that happened was to seek solace in Roxy’s Void.

“If you would not mind,” Rose asked without asking, tipping her head forwards. Without further prompting, Roxy’s nimble fingers alighted on Rose’s temples, and a soothing coolness spread through Rose’s skull.

She sighed, feeling relief for the first time in two days. Having future sight was not worth the pain of a throbbing migraine, not during a time of peace. At the moment, any important events to come were still a few weeks off. She could take a break from keeping her mind’s eye open, and enjoy instead life as a semi-ordinary teenager.

“Better?” Roxy asked, running her fingers through Rose’s hair as she removed her hands.

“Much, thank you again,” Rose said sincerely. Roxy’s bright bubble-gum pink smile made Rose relax further, the familial and familiarity of her presence soothing Rose’s nerves.

Ah, if only Kanaya could have seen. Rose being so open and trusting of an individual she’d only known for a short while.

Though, she supposed that it might have scandalized her girlfriend too; Rose being ‘involved’ in not one, not two, but three ‘moirallegiances’ all at once.

Bringing that up with Dave made him turn all sorts of reds, matching the colors of his Aspect. Rose would do it more often, but talking of quadrants made him think of Karkat, and thusly turn melancholy…

Rose was no better, when the topic of Kanaya came up.

“Thinkin’ of the bae?” Roxy asked, breaking into Rose’s thoughts.

Rose smiled faintly, old and aching wounds struggling to close themselves in her chest. “The one and only.”

“Aw Rosie…” Roxy slipped her arms around Rose, and snuggled her much smaller relative in a tight hug to her chest. “You’re gonna get through it, just gotta stay positive.”

Rose nodded into Roxy’s collarbone, taking the moment to feel her sister/daughter/mother’s unconditional love via physical contact. “Thank you, again, Roxy. I do believe I needed this.”

“Any time Rose, any time.”

 

 

 

Raph slid his brush across the ship’s hull, the neon green paint standing stark against the gleaming silver metal. He lifted it away, satisfied with his work.

After a lot of fighting, they’d at least all decided on the insignia of the ship, and designated him as the painter.

Their family crest stood out nicely, the blown up version of the Hamato clan symbol emblazoned on the ship’s front. This was the left side’s turn, so one down and one to go.

 _“You almost done out there?”_ Donnie yelled out the hatch on top of the ship. _“I wanna test the engine again!”_

“I’m done the left one, gimme a sec to get clear!” Raph hollered back, sliding himself away from the wet paint area. He stuck his brush back into the paint can, and carefully started winching himself, and the platform he sat on, down to the ground. Once his feet hit cement, he slid himself free of the jury-rigged painter’s pulley. He took his paint can with him as he got clear of the ship, the brush knocking against the sides as he did. “I’M CLEAR! FIRE AWAY, DEE!”

_“Roger that!”_

The engines hummed to life, pink lights shining along the side of the ship’s exterior. Raph watched, waiting for the thing to either take off or cough and die again.

Something sparked along the cockpit’s area, and then the whole thing went dark with a slow whine. Raph heard his brother cursing loudly inside the ship, his angry voice floating out of the hatch on top of the thing.

He sighed, and hefted the paint can off the ground again. And they said _he_ had anger problems.

 

 

 

Casey shuddered awake, almost strangling himself with his covers. Somehow, he’d flipped upside down in his bed overnight, and had his feet against the head board now.

“….hhhhhhhh…. _fuck me_ ,” Casey groaned, reeling from his latest nightmare. And fuck therapy for doing this to him, stirring up all sorts of shit that should’ve stayed buried. It didn’t mix well with the stuff he’d done the last few months; turning everything into one big soup of awful.

He definitely wasn’t going back to sleep, not with the images of… of his father, meshed with the multiple villains Casey had fought recently. A shark, a bug, a dinosaur, and his dad… ugh.

Yeah. No sleep for him.

Maybe one of the turtles would be awake. He glanced at his alarm clock; it was heading closer to five now, which was near the brothers’ bedtime, excluding one of them who didn’t really sleep anyways…

Casey pulled his blankets off his neck, and fumbled around his side table for his phone.

_‘yo don you awake’_

_‘I am, but I regret being so. What do you want.’_

_‘you sound friendly’_

_‘Rightfully so. I haven’t slept in a full thirty hours.’_

_‘lol how come’_

_‘Secret ninja business.’_

_‘lame tell me what it is’_

_‘No.’_

_‘lame’_

_‘You’re lame.’_

_‘nice comeback’_

_‘Fuck off; at least I’m using actual punctuation and capitalization.’_

_‘punctuation is for people who give a shit’_

_‘Clearly that isn’t you.’_

_‘you know it ;)’_

_‘Do not send me that icon ever again.’_

_‘its called emoticon and_

_;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)’_

_‘You are an insipid human being with no redeemable qualities beyond being cannon fodder.’_

_‘and youre a desperate mutant nerd who doesnt know how to have a convo without sounding like youre hitting someone with a thesaurous’_

_‘Thesaurus.*’_

_‘did I stutter? no. i typed thesaurous and i meant thesaurous.’_

_‘NOW you use punctuation.’_

_‘;)’_

_‘Ugh.’_

Casey chuckled, already feeling the remains of his dream slip away. He could always depend on his pissy friend to distract him; Donnie never failed to deliver with that.

Sleep deprived Donnie was especially pissy, ranting at any little thing you bugged him with.

Casey happened to be very good at bugging his friend.

Casey stayed awake until morning, insulting and instigating Donnie through text up till he got up for school, and he forced Donnie to go take thirty from whatever the mutant was working on.

 

 

  

Donnie pulled open the sliding panel, and peered inside. It was dark, and cramped, and he couldn’t see a thing even with his semi-night vision.

He’d taken Casey’s advice that morning, to go sleep for a while, but he could still feel the drags of exhaustion pulling at his concentration. His brothers, specifically Leo and Mikey this time, fighting in the background of the ship, were _not_ helping either.

Donnie sighed, and held out a hand behind him. “Raph, hand me my mini flashlight.”

Raph’s answered with a grunt, and then a cylinder of cool metal was pressed into Donnie’s palm. He clicked it on, and shone it into the narrow space behind the panel. He’d narrowed down the malfunction to this area, and he just needed to examine every inch of the… six foot radius of dense… wiring circuits…

Donnie sighed, drooping the light as he did. This would take forever; picking over each bit of the area just to be sure this was where the malfunction was happening, and then figuring out how to fix it… if he didn’t fix the malfunction today, then they wouldn’t be able to go to Casey’s relocated home tomorrow-

Donnie yelped as something slammed into him from behind, knocking him into the open panel space. His flashlight slipped from his grasp as his head was shoved between circuit boards; tumbling onto the floor and shining light at a random direction.

_“Shit- dee, I’m so sorry, Leo was pushing me and-”_

_“Don’t blame me! I didn’t push you, you were pushing_ me- _”_

_“-for fuck’s sake guys- hey Donnie, you okay?”_

Donnie grunted, trying and failing to turn his head in the tight space. “Peachy! Just- just _peachy!_ ”

_“Uh oh, he’s using the peachy phrase again. He’s pissed.”_

_“Mikey, you should’ve been more careful, he was right there, how did you not see him?”_

“I _should have been more careful? What about you, Leo?! I’m not the one shoved me into him-”_

Donnie sighed, and tried to remember that he loved his brothers very dearly and would _not_ murder them in their sleep tonight. “Raph, pull my legs, I can’t get my head- oh. Oh wait. I think I found something.”

Donnie’s eye was caught by a wire out of place, the only difference in a long line of identical plug-ins. One was hanging loose, dislodged from its home socket.

He cackled, half from lack of sleep, half from delirious triumph. He knew it, he knew it! It could have taken him another few days to find that wire, if not weeks, but thanks to being wedged in the wall at an awkward angle, he’d gotten a view he otherwise wouldn’t have.

Donnie pulled his arm into the narrow space, and pushed it towards the even narrower space that held the loose wire. Only fumbling a bit, he took the tiny thing and gently pushed it back into its socket.

Something sparked inside the electronic network, and the row of lights beneath the plug-ins lit up. Donnie whooped, because thank god that was over.

 _“You find the problem?”_ Raph asked.

“Yep! Everything should work correctly now! Ha _ha,_ fuck you alien technology; Donnie one, you zip,” Donnie chuckled to himself for a moment longer, then, “Now someone get me out of here, my head’s starting to hurt.”

 

 

 

“Casey, you think they’ll be nice?” Noel asked her brother, kicking her feet under the dining table while she drew.

“Iunno, they’re Roxy’s friends so probably?” Casey replied, scribbling a collection of numbers onto his homework. “I don’t think she’d hang out with people who weren’t chill.”

“Hmmmm… yeah, I guess so,” Noel agreed. She felt a bit nervous though, meeting a bunch of new people that were so much older than her. Would they think she was too little to hang out with and be mean? Or would they treat her like a baby instead, and not let her have any fun.

“Bleh,” Noel muttered, switching her green pencil for a pink one.

“What’s the ‘bleh’ for, munchkin?”

“Teenagers,” Noel replied, adding a long swoop to her paper; one that she planned to make into a Kraang tentacle.

“Oh. Yeah, they’re pretty ‘bleh’,” Casey agreed.

Noel nodded as she added more swoops of pink, making it so the tentacles wrapped around the buildings and people she’d already started drawing. She glanced up, noticing that Casey was staring.

“…you been thinking about the invasion?” Casey asked, looking at Noel’s picture.

Noel shrugged. She didn’t think too much about the invasion, but sometimes she felt like drawing it anyways. But also because: “Doctor Patricia says that drawing out stuff that makes me feel upsetty will help those feelings go away, so I’m drawing the Kraang guys who wrecked our home.”

“Huh… guess I can see some point to that,” Casey said, leaning forwards on his elbow. “But you can talk to me if you need to; I’m all ears whenever you need me to be.”

“That’s what doctor Patricia said too, that I should talk to my bro when I felt upset,” Noel said. Then she grimaced, seeing Casey’s expression slide towards a frown. Her big brother was such a worrier, even if no one else seemed to think so. Mostly, he seemed to worry about Noel.

“You excited for the sleepover?” Noel asked, changing the subject.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’m excited. They should all get here about… seven tonight?” Casey glanced over towards the kitchen clock. “Yep. Five more hours and they’ll be here. You got your movie choices ready?”

“Course!” Noel chirped, thinking of the short stack of DVD’s in her room. “You got all of yours?”

“You know it. I dug out five from my drawers; they gotta like at least _one_ of ‘em.”

Noel smiled to herself, and went back to coloring in her alien invasion picture. _Success_ , her brother was distracted again.

“Don’t forget, Aunt Roxanne said you had to have all your school junk done before the party.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. Long division, someone just kill me already.”

 

 

 

“We all set?” Leo asked, glancing at Raph and Mikey in the seats further back.

“Rarin’ to go, bro!” Mikey exclaimed, giving him a thumbs up.

Raph gave one as well, sending a smirk at Leo. “Take us away, captain.”

Leo nodded, and turned back to buckle himself in. “Donnie, if you would do the honors.”

“Sir yes sir,” Donnie said, bringing the dashboard to life. The window lit up with navigational systems, and the interior of the ship sprang to life. Pink lights flaring in the semi-dark as Donnie tapped in the start-up sequence.

“Thrusters ready, landing gear retracting… did you remember to get the door, Mikey?” Donnie asked as the engines started to hum.

“Uh…”

“ _Mikey.”_

“I’m joking! I totally got the doors.”

“Well then…” Leo grinned over at Donnie. “Take her away, Don.”

The ship lifted into the air, and glided over the concrete floors. The doors were indeed open, as Mikey promised, and they sailed out and into the air.

The S.C. Testudinata flew up into the evening sky, and Leo didn’t bother to repress his excited yells. He’d missed flying, he’d missed being in a spaceship.

It felt good to get off the ground again, and feel like none of his problems below could touch him.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao its been SO LONG since I posted for this fic.
> 
> tbh, I wasn't entirely sure if I was ever gonna finish it, despite being so close, since Homestuck's 'end' earlier this year crushed me so badly. BUT! With the shit that's been happening for that side of my fandom faves, I felt the need to come back and complete this disaster crossover.
> 
> lol, and I made it a series too. Following this fic, I'll be working on one where its the sorta the opposite: the TMNT kids play SBURB! Because in no way will that end badly.  
> (I have classpects and planets and an actual plotline help I can't stop.)
> 
> Hope I didn't disappoint with this update, I know I left ya'll hanging for a long while. Thanks for being so patient!


	5. Act 4 Intermission: ===> analyze the shit out of these characters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> as requested, the classpects.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shimmies* presenting my headcanon god tiers for the kids.

 

 

 **Leonardo** I would place as a **_Mage of Void_**. Mages will uniquely experience their Aspect, both good and bad. As a result, they gain a unique understanding of what their Aspect is or does. Their challenge is to become open to new insight or different perspectives than their own.

A Mage of Void would seemingly be suffering from ‘Nothing’, (Void pun lmao), and thus no one would suspect something would be bothering Leo. But, and this is my own personal headcanon territory, I’d say Leo has been repressing and a _void_ ing his experiences with the Shredder for the last three seasons, ever since he ended up in that coma of his. Something that traumatic drastically changed his character from someone who might’ve been a bit controlling and overbearing at times, into someone who needs to be in charge of nearly everything and pushes his teammates to lengths they don’t want to be. (And Splinter passing on the mantle of leader and sensei to Leo has not helped that complex in the least.)

To avoid feeling useless, or unneeded, or like he’s failing expectations, Leo overcompensates and does his best to make his own personal doubts disappear (into the void). Underneath that though, I believe he struggles, even without realizing it, with being unnecessary or ignored. (while he’s made firm effort to be heard and listened to by his siblings, it hasn’t been a healthy coping mechanism for anyone since Leo is still just avoiding his repressed issues, and making life a lot harder for everyone around him. see my fiction These Days for more about this, when I get around to publishing the Leo chapter.)

As a Mage, Leo would probably be able to let go of all these negativities if he’d just open himself up to other options, other views and ideas. He needs a stern talking to about how a leader is actually meant to act, ( _Leading_ , not ordering around. Key difference here.), and a good long self-reflection period. If he faced his trauma, and his repressed issues, he’d be able to truly lead the team as he originally wanted to, and just be a much happier individual all around.

 

 

 **Donatello** I would put down as a **_Knight of Blood_.** Knights hide a fear of a perceived fundamental failure with their Aspect behind a shield of confidence and obsessive effort. Their challenge is to learn to take it down a notch and to understand that they are skilled enough.

Blood can mean a lot of things; blood bonds, blood brothers, blood relations. Donnie’s whole role in the family is centered around his ability to provide support and stability to his brothers, through his continuous and never ending work to protect and build for them all. His empathy is the strongest out of all of them, reaching out to people easily and sympathizing with their struggles. Of course, this doubles back as a negative on occasion, since Donnie is attempting to give more than he should, and thus exhausting himself as he fights against his imagined failings.

Knights of Blood tend to feel deeply insecure or inadequate relating to something Flesh or Blood about them. In this case, that would be Donnie’s mutantness compared to the rest of the world, and his struggles in ninjutsu. While his brothers take to martial arts with vigor and enthusiasm, Donnie prefers to spend time in his head or lab, and while he is skilled as they are, he would likely still see himself as a lesser member of his family. He’s the odd man out, both in family, and to the rest of the world. The reasons that set him apart are never going to change, and those are heavy things to weigh on a kid, especially one as socially isolated as Donnie.

Of course, if Donnie was given mutual effort and support from his family, he’d be able to become as stable as the work he does for them all. Reassuring a Knight that they’re good enough, that their skill and work and Aspect are things that they’re able to excel at, that you do in fact love them for who they are, would probably be all Donnie needs. To move past the perceived failings he has (of not being enough, or not being accepted for who he is) he needs some good old TLC and genuine appreciation from his brothers and friends. (And his dad, who never once praised him for being _himself_ through the whole series.)

Honestly, just give the genius the credit and attention and care he deserves, and his emotional/mental state would improve 300%. Seriously. It’s that simple.

 

 

 **Michelangelo** I’d place as an **_Heir of Breath_**. Heirs naturally gravitate towards their Aspect or unconsciously seek it out. All Heirs so far have huge amounts of Aspect related strength. Their challenge is to not get stuck on one thing and to know when to move on and adapt.

Mikey is air and wind and other related words in a lot of senses. He’s finicky and whimsical, and tends to just do whatever the hell he feels like. When he _does_ listen to you, it’s because _he_ feels like it, not because someone else wants him to. This has caused a lot of trouble in canon, Mikey going off on an adventure of his own making because he caught something interesting and won’t let it go until he feels like it. His character sums up to be either hyper focused on _one particular thing_ , or be completely distracted by ten plus ideas or events without really getting involved with any of them.

He coasts through happenings and fights without ever really letting them touch him; off in his own world rather than deal with the harshness of reality. Heirs of Breath are notorious for seeming indifferent or uncaring because of this tendency. Mikey’s go to reaction to lighten a situation, or full stop ignore it, is a fine example of how Breath players cope with traumatic events. Didn’t happen if they don’t admit it did!

It makes Mikey out to be this very callous person, since he never gives time or effort to the things other people need him to, and keeps to his own wants instead. But he is a very caring person, being the most emotionally open and connected person in his family. He simply never chooses to use that openness in the right situation, or actually come back down to earth to be a stable member of the team. Currently, the best way of getting him to focus on _anything_ is to just throw him at the problem and let him take it apart from there. I nearly put him in a Destroyer class because of that trait in Mikey; his ability to enter any sort of situation, and tear it to pieces if he feels like it. But, in the end, his trait to avoid a situation entirely by leaving _reality_ entirely places him better as an Heir.

To overcome this part of himself, the whimsical destruction and deliberate ignorance, Mikey would need to buckle down and actually deal with his issues, rather than pretend they’re not there for the rest of eternity. He needs to learn to keep his promises, fulfill his obligations, and be there emotionally for his family. (He is sometimes, but only when it suits him.)

 

 

 **Raphael** is in nearly every canon, a destroyer of sorts; which is why I’ve placed him as a **_Prince of Doom_** _._ Princes ghost their opposite Aspects as they destroy theirs. They are violently stubborn pessimistic people that stop at nothing to reach their goals. Their challenge is to not destroy themselves along their destructive path.

Princes of Doom are reckless, full of energy, and near unstoppable when they hit their stride. Raph is a battering ram against things that get in his way, and his temper is no help in curbing his destructive tendencies. His solution to a problem is 9/10 times to just destroy it completely. Someone or something gets between him and his family’s goals, he’ll take them out. No ifs ands or buts about it.

This is both a bane and a boon, since destroying barriers or blocks can mean destroying enemies or metaphorical restrictions. Raph is a rebel, and a loud one at that, and has never been the type to let rules or threats stop him from doing something. Sometimes this works in everyone’s favor, sometimes it causes a painful fallout for everyone except Raph; the result of Raph charging ahead without hindrance or regard for others around him, or pushing and shoving until he gets his way. His go to reaction is always to _force_ people into his view of things, even if it’s through physical violence and someone gets hurt.

Using his destructive impulses correctly, including his anger issues, would give Raph the strength and momentum to bowl down anything that attempted to hurt his family. Princes are horrifically powerful at their peaks, and at the top of that peak a Prince of Doom would be able to doom anyone who got in their path.  Raph _could_ be the warrior he’s hinted at having the potential to be, dependable and fierce and strong as bedrock, and if he got his head out of his own emotions he’d be able to realize that potential.

But as it is, Raph still stands a chance of being swallowed by his own Doom, since in canon he has yet to really grab hold of that temper of his (we’ve had what, like five episodes or something of him trying over and over to do that? bs, I tell you) and continues to physically push his siblings around whenever he doesn’t like what they’re saying/doing. (Looking at you, elevator scene, all the ones like it.)

 

 

 **April** is a character that has grown and changed drastically over the season, and to me this screams **_Page of Hope_** _._ Pages start with a deficit in their Aspect that they confidently overcome through obvious overcompensation. Their challenge is to keep at it, even if they fail and the journey is slow, for they become the strongest players

April started out as the team’s weakest link; new to ninjutsu, new to espionage, new to everything. And then she hit her stride (and also got traumatized a bunch of times) and became the most powerful above all. Seriously, she’s got enough power to warp the face of the earth; she was literally designed to be the genocidal weapon that would wipe out the human race. And, her powers depend pretty much completely on her own emotions, confidence, and mental willpower. (Also, she gets glowy and floaty when she uses them, especially at her peak power, which resembles super closely Hope magic.)

In the beginning of the series, April was well-meaning and something pretty close to naïve. She depended nearly entirely on the boys for their help in things, tended to hang back when things went south. Then, because April O’Neil is no one’s damsel in distress for long, she started to take control of her life best she could and became this furious martial artist that didn’t let anyone get in her way. She tended to let people’s views influence her own at first, sometimes even believing boldfaced lies, but now _no one_ can hide shit from her. She’s the human lie detector, and her own opinions are the ones she follows.

While the rest of the kids here have a quest or two to complete, April has already finished hers. She’s her own person, in control of her own life and beliefs, and ten times as powerful as her season 1 self. At this point, the only things holding her back is her A) restraints on her powers, which could be even stronger if she’d let go of the (already flimsy) morals she has, and B) her deference to Leo as the leader. (Leo is making one bad call after another these days; April should really just defect to the Foot clan (read as ‘Karai and Shinigami’s Murder Ladies Only Club’) and embrace the sheer deadliness of herself.)

Pages go from the weakest player on the team to the most powerful, and we heard Kravaxas say it himself. April is _far_ more powerful than her mutant friends at this point, and will only keep getting more powerful, so long as she works for it and believes in her abilities.

 

 

 **Casey** , because he’s a problematic little shit, ended up with the same Class as Mikey, being an **_Heir of Life._ ** Once again, Heirs naturally gravitate towards their Aspect or unconsciously seek it out, etc etc etc, and their challenge is to not get stuck on one thing and to know when to move on and adapt.

An Heir of Life fits Casey perfectly, much to my annoyance about repeating Classes. They’re completely unrestricted in almost every way, having no rules, no limits and no boundaries of any kind. They’re openly dominating, reckless, and full of optimism in everything they do. They are also extremely effective at what they do and have no problem rejecting anything that they think isn’t valid or not useful to them. They have no problems sacrificing others and breaking rules in order to open up more options for themselves and make themselves even less restricted by everything. Sounds like Casey to a T, right?

Rather than how an Heir of Breath copes with their problems, ignoring them completely, Heirs of Life charge right into things and _make_ their problems go away. Let it never be said that Casey Jones backed down from _any_ sort of fight; he’ll just keep going until he can’t, and then push through anyways. Any problem, any obstacle, any sort of block or adversary Casey has ever faced have all been dealt with the same way: bullheaded enthusiasm and utter confidence in himself to come out the victor.

Of course, this still tends to get him into trouble, and he’s yet to learn temperance to his unfaltering attitude. Casey resilience to any situation he encounters is admirable to say the least, buuuuuut he is also usually the one to have gotten himself into said situation. He needs to learn to not tunnel focus on an obstacle, and look before he leaps. Only then will he stop getting himself into easily avoidable situations.

 

 

(And because I have a rough plot for a fic I want to write in the future, I’m throwing in Karai’s too.)

 **Karai** I see as a **_Witch of Time._** Witches are enthusiastic, confident and optimistic rebels. They break and change the physical and metaphysical “Rules” of their Aspect. Their challenge is to use their rule breaking powers in a morally conscious way.

Karai is a not so morally conscious individual, and is in many ways a rebel. She originally followed her (shitty fake adopted) father’s word without questions, and was fiercely loyal, but once she found out the truth… well, she’s done nothing since then but try to tear the Shredder to pieces, and I don’t blame her in the least.

She manipulates and schemes and does so with utter confidence in herself. She’s put a lot of Time and effort into seeing her false father’s downfall, and she did in a clever and brilliant manner. (And I fucking hate canon for robbing her of her own arc’s conclusion, and instead shunted the whole thing over to Leo, while Karai was written into being ‘okay’ with not getting her _very well deserved vengeance_. Fuck this fucking show, god.)

While Karai’s future position as a criminal empire warlord is one I fully agree with, I do think she needs to learn to mind the fallout of her actions a bit better. Yes she should continue to forge her path ahead with all the fighting and gore that comes with being a ninja, but she should watch out that she doesn’t hurt people she shouldn’t in the process. (See: the Broken Foot episode, where she brought Leo on and not the other boys, encouraged the secrecy of things from the family, and resulted in Donnie being injured badly enough he needed magical healing.)

Also: Karai  would be fucking terrifying as a Time player. She could do anything she wanted to the fabric of someone’s Time (their past, present, future) and no one would be able to stop her once she’d put her mind to it. I would pay good money to see this come to be, because I do love a woman with a goal and not a lot of care how she reaches it.

 

and that's about it. ta-da. tell me your thoughts about my Classpect assignments if you feel like it, i'm curious to see how many folks agree/disagree.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one day i'll get around to finishing this fic for real and then starting my SBURB AU for the tmnt kids. one day.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone couldn't tell, I adore found families and have a tendency to write a lot of the TMNT gang as such. Let's see where that takes itself with Casey's new predicament.
> 
> Noel is based on my littlest sister, who is almost exactly the same; just older and getting into pre-teen angst now. She also doesn't make me breakfast, but manages to eat all the good bread products before I can. Darn kids these days.
> 
> Questions, comments, and critiques are welcome; I just wanna know what others think of this horrifying amalgamate of a fic.


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